


It's Flickering!

by DarkWitchOfErie



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Avengers Tower, Blow Jobs, But I think Nebula doesn't get enough love, Canon Divergence - Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Canon? What's that? Who's she?, Crossdressing, Does include Tony's death scene but non-compliant after that, Domestic Avengers, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, Hand Jobs, I love the #IronFam, It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!, M/M, No beta: we die like men, Non-binary Loki, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Temporary Character Death, The Author is taking Liberties with Canon, The sex comes later but it is shown, There's a little drama, Tony's desire was vague enough when he Snapped to fix other stuff too, but it's mostly fluff, first chapter written in two hours instead of doing homework
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:55:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 55,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24975694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkWitchOfErie/pseuds/DarkWitchOfErie
Summary: When Tony left home for the Compound, he promised his daughter that he was going to bring her brothers back. And he did. Now, they can all be a family.A fix-it IronFam fic with a side of Parkner. Everyone's ok and nothing hurts.
Relationships: Harley Keener & Nebula & Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Harley Keener & Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Harley Keener & Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Harley Keener/Peter Parker, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Nebula & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 54
Kudos: 290





	1. It's flickering

**Author's Note:**

> The title has very little to do with the actual story. I just couldn't come up with a title that did. Titles suck.

Peter pressed his cheek against Rhodey’s armor, staring down at Tony’s lifeless form, Pepper crouched beside him. Around them, everyone was kneeling with their heads bowed. But Peter couldn’t force himself to look away from Tony. He couldn’t help the circling thought ‘I never got to tell him’ from playing over and over in his head. The thought was so loud, that it took him a couple seconds to recognize what he was seeing.

He pushed at Rhodey, who tried to hold him tighter. “The arc reactor!” He wasn’t shouting, but in the silence it sounded like he was. “It’s flickering!”

Pepper pulled back and looked in shock at the reactor. Bruce and Dr. Strange jumped into action immediately. Bruce lifted Tony off the ground, Strange opened a portal and they all followed him through to what looked like a regular hospital operating room. Bruce tore the Iron Man armor off of him and gently set him down on an operating table.

“Come on,” Rhodey pulled Peter’s arm. “Let them work.” They all left the room and as they sat against the walls of the hallway, a flurry of nurses rushed past them and into the room.

“Alright, we _are_ at a regular hospital then,” Clint commented.

Pepper stepped away from everyone else, her faceplate clinking back into place. After about 10 minutes, though no one was really keeping track of time, she rejoined them all, stepping out of her armor and sitting beside Peter. “We’re in Metro-General in New York. It’s the hospital Strange was a resident in before he resigned. Happy will be here in a little over an hour with clothes for everyone to change into,” she turned to Rhodey. “He’s bringing Morgan too.” Peter looked over at her, confused. “Our daughter,” she said to him.

“You sure that’s a good idea?” Rhodey asked.

She shrugged. “Probably not, but I need her here.”

They all sat in the hallway, still covered in blood, most of them sporting their own wounds from the battle. And they waited. Eventually Happy arrived, two large duffle bags on his shoulder, a small brunette girl on his hip, and a nurse behind him. He dropped the bags and they all grabbed some sweats to change into. The nurse told them that they could use the staff locker rooms to clean up and change in and that one of the residents would be around to check on their injuries if they needed tended to.

Only Rhodey, Peter, and Pepper remained in the hallway when Happy set Morgan down in front of her mother. “Hi baby,” she smiled tearfully.

“Hi Mommy. Where’s Daddy?” she asked, climbing into Pepper’s lap.

“He’s in there,” she nodded to the operating room doors. “The doctors are trying very hard to fix him from the fight he was in.”

“Oh. Is Dr. Bruce in there? Daddy says he’s the bestest doctor.”

“Yes, Bruce is in there.”

“Then Daddy will be okay,” she decided. She turned and smiled at Rhodey. “Hi Uncle Rhodey. Were you fighting too?” He nodded. “And you didn’t get hurt?”

“Not much.”

“Okay, good.” Then she turned to Peter, seeming to notice him for the first time. “Petey! You came back!” She flung herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and not caring how dirty she got. “Daddy said he was gonna bring you back!”

“You… You know who I am, Morgan?”

“Of course, silly. You’re my big brother. I missed you so much! But Daddy told me stories, so it’s okay that you were gone for a little while.” She held on, pressing her face against his neck and shoulder, as he hugged her as tightly as he dared.

Wide and teary-eyed, he looked up at Pepper, who just smiled and kissed his forehead. He clung to Morgan and curled around her a little, leaning into Pepper.

“Is that the Little Miss I spy down there?”

Peter looked up to see a blue and purple woman he vaguely recognized from Titan. “Neb! Hi Neb! Petey’s back, did you see?” Morgan scrambled out of Peter and Pepper’s embrace and latched on to Nebula.

“I do see that,” she lifted the little girl into her arms. Despite the joy in her voice, her face didn’t change much. “But right now, Uncle Rhodey is going to take Petey somewhere so they can both clean up and get changed. Or else they are going to start to smell really bad.”

Morgan crinkled her nose. “Ew. Go get cleaned up, or else you’ll get stinky,” she told them both. “Mommy you go too. I’ll stay here with Neb and Uncle Happy to wait for Dr. Bruce to tell us about Daddy.”

“Okay, Little Miss,” Rhodey stood and kissed her cheek. “We’ll be right back.”

“Down this hall, first left turn, first door on the left. It’s the closest room and is empty now.”

“Thank you, Nebula,” Pepper smiled at her. She grabbed Peter’s arm and led him away, while Rhodey grabbed the remaining duffle bag and followed. They entered what was clearly a doctor’s lounge/locker room type area. Quickly and quietly, they each showered and changed into the sweats Happy had brought everyone. When Peter stepped back into the main room, Pepper was already there, sitting with a towel wrapped around her hair like she’d been waiting for him.

He sat beside her but didn’t speak for a moment. “Morgan thinks I’m her brother.”

“That’s because that’s what Tony and I told her. As far as the three of us are concerned, you are her big brother,” she stroked his wet hair for a moment. “He may not want me to tell you this, but Tony fell into a very dark depression when you…. It got worse when I told him I was pregnant with Morgan two weeks after he came back home. He told me that he was afraid that because he’d already lost one child that he wouldn’t be a good father to Morgan. That got worse again when he found out that Harley blipped away too.”

“Harley?”

“The potato gun kid.”

“Oh yeah.” Tony had told him stories of the kid in Nowhere Tennessee that had saved his life and who he’d kept in contact with.

“Anyway, what helped was Nebula. They were the only two to make it off that planet, and they survived together on a spaceship while Nebula tried to bring him home. I don’t know exactly what was said, but she pulled him into a room away from me and they talked for a while. When they came out, they were both teary-eyed but trying to hide it. He was okay with being a father, which over the few months after that moved to genuine excitement. And Nebula moved in with us.

“He searched up and downloaded your videos, got more from May, had photos of you and Harley printed out and hung up around the house. And when he left the house to go to the compound this time, he told Morgan that he was going to go get her brothers back for her.” Peter leaned into her, resting his head on her shoulder. Which is how Rhodey found them when he came out a moment later. “Come on, I have a call to make.”

Together, they walked back down to the operating room doors. Steve, Bucky, Thor, Scott, Carol, Shuri, and T’Challa were already back as well. Pepper picked up her helmet and stepped away from them all again, putting it on to make whatever call she needed to make.

In Rose Hill Tennessee, Harley Keener sat at a dusty kitchen table, crying with his head on his arms. No one was home and it didn’t look like they’d been there in a long time. Which didn’t make sense, he’d only gone out to his garage workshop less than three minutes before he ran back in the house. Dimly, he heard the landline phone ringing but paid no attention. When it didn’t stop ringing, he yanked it off the charger and pushed the talk button.

“What?!”

“Harley? It’s Pepper.”

“Pepper? I can’t find…. Abbie and my mom are gone. I don’t understand.”

“I know, sweetheart. What do you remember? Do you remember the dust?” Now that he thought about it, he did. He was halfway to the workshop when it felt like he was choking on campfire ash and then it cleared up like nothing had happened.

“Yeah, so?”

“Harley, I’m so sorry,” she paused, and he heard her take a deep breath. “That was five years ago.”

“What?” he whispered, sinking to the floor.

“I know it’s a lot right now. And I’m sorry again, but I don’t know where your mom and Abbie are. They didn’t vanish like you did, but after you were gone, they couldn’t stay in the house. Your mom said it was too painful. Tony gave them money and they left to live somewhere else but never told us where they were going.

“I’m going to try to find them for you, but in the meantime, I’m going to have you brought up here to New York, okay?” There was silence on the line. “Harley?”

“Okay. When?”

“Give me just a moment, okay?”

“Uh-huh.”

She pulled the helmet off as she spotted one of the sorcerers that had been with Strange. “I’m sorry, what’s your name?”

“Wong. And, no need to be sorry.”

“Wong, can I ask for a huge favor? I know you’re probably tired from the battle, but I really need this.”

“Ask away, Mrs. Stark. If it’s in my power to do, I will.”

“I need one of those portals to Rose Hill Tennessee. One of Tony’s kids is down there, completely alone.”

“What are his exact coordinates?” She recited them from FRIDAY’s display on her helmet then put it back on.

“Harley, there’s going to be a portal outlined in gold opening up very near you. All you have to do is step through it. The other end will be here by me. We’re in a hospital.”

“Portal? What do you…? Oh, portal. Yeah.”

The line disconnected and she pulled off the helmet as Harley stepped through and into her arms. “Hi Harley.”

“What’s going on?”

“The short version?” She launched into the shortest possible explanation for the last 5 years and the last few hours that she possibly could, ending with the explanation of who Morgan, Nebula, and Peter were. “I know that’s a lot and also not nearly enough. But there’s time to explain later, okay?”

“Yeah, okay. What about Tony?”

“He’s still in surgery. I don’t know how long it’ll be before we have answers. Come on, the others are this way.”

“Harley! Mommy, you got Harley!” Morgan jumped up from where she’d been lounging across Peter and Nebula’s laps and ran into Harley’s legs. “Hi Harley.” She grinned up at him.

“Hey, Morgan,” he scooped her up and made his way over to who he now figured had to be Peter and Nebula.

As more and more people started to file back in the hallway, Morgan started to realize that not everyone was as excited and optimistic as she was. This bothered her more than she could put into words. Didn’t these people understand that her daddy was gonna be okay? Clearly, to her almost 5-year-old eyes, they did not understand. At. All. She stood up, balancing on Nebula’s knee and turned around to critically eye them all. She didn’t know it, but everyone who knew Tony could see just how much she resembled him in that moment.

She fisted her hands on her hips and loudly cleared her throat to make sure they were all looking at her. “Daddy will be okay, everybody. He is mine and Nebula’s and Petey’s and Harley’s daddy and there is nothing he can’t do. He told me he was gonna get a pet llama and then he did it even though _Mommy_ said it was a bad idea. He told me he was gonna build me my own special workshop and then he did. He told me he was gonna get my brothers back for me and then he did it. He told me that he’s gonna teach me how to fix his cars when I get bigger and so he’s gonna be okay ‘cause he told me so. Okay, everybody?”

She was too young to understand why everyone was crying around her, but she didn’t get a chance to ask because, from down the hall a voice said, “Gonna be honest, I’m with the kid on this.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mostly, the IronKids getting to know each other and bonding. Peter and Harley's families join them and Tony heals in the background.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Monday everybody!

“Gonna be honest, I’m with the kid on this.”

Everyone turned from Morgan to see Natasha leaning against the wall, still in the time travel suit she’d worn when she died. Shock rooted them all to their spots and kept them there as Loki rounded the corner behind her. He took one look around, turned on his heel and strode back around the corner.

“Heimdall! I am not….” He was pushed back around the corner by a black man with gold eyes.

“Apparently, you are,” Natasha smirked at him. “Somebody wanna tell me why I’m not dead on a foreign planet?” Uncaring, for the moment, of Loki standing right there, Clint launched himself at Nat, picking her up as he hugged her.

“For the same reason we are not dead on a spaceship in the middle of nowhere,” Heimdall answered.

Slower than Clint, Thor walked up to them and gingerly poked Loki’s cheek. When his finger didn’t go through him, he hugged him hard enough to lift him off the ground.

“It must have been when Stark snapped. The Stones, as we all know, are reality changing. If his desire was specific enough, or just vague enough, he could have used a single snap to destroy Thanos and his army, while bringing you all back,” Wong speculated.

“ _Tony_ snapped?” Natasha, now back on the ground but with one of Clint’s arms still around her, turned to look at Wong.

“He did. Bruce did the first one, to bring everyone that had been Snapped away back. But Tony did the second one to destroy Thanos and his army,” Steve explained.

“Where are the others?” Thor asked Heimdall.

“I transported everyone to New Asgard. I remembered seeing this woman with you before and I knew she belonged on Earth. So, when I saw her on Vormir, I transported her to us.”

“Which let me just say, while it’s a very cool way to travel – it’s terrifying if you’re not expecting it,” Nat interjected.

“My apologies,” Heimdall inclined his head to her.

“No need for that. I’m home, that’s what’s important about that. And Tony’s gonna be fine because he told Morgan so. And everyone else is good, unless there’s something I haven’t been told yet.”

After that it became a waiting game. The Avengers and allies stayed in the hallway, waiting for the doctors and nurses to finish working on Tony. Eventually, Thor convinced Loki to magically create chairs and couches for them all. Most everyone was wary of sitting on something he had created from scraps of fabric until Peter, Harley, and Morgan sat together on one of the couches. Pepper sat with hers and Tony’s kids for a little while until waiting got to be too much for her, and she needed to do something.

She strode away, promising everyone she wouldn’t be gone long. After a few minutes they saw her on a cell phone down at the end of the hallway. She paced back and forth while she talked, but no one got close enough to find out what she was saying and those with enhanced senses were focused elsewhere. Sometime after that, she rejoined everyone – Peter, Harley, and Morgan scooting over to make room for her.

“I rebought the Tower. They’d never gotten around to fully using it or even changing much before the Snap and definitely not after, so it’s still mostly the same as when we left. At least, the upper floors where everyone’s rooms are. So, when they come out, we can all go there. And take Tony to our infirmary to finish recovering,” she added with a look at Morgan. She wasn’t sure if it was Morgan’s speech or Natasha and the Asgardians’ reappearances, but the mood in the hallway had shifted to be more optimistic. They were all aware that Morgan could be wrong, but now they had hope.

Wong had opened a portal for Clint, who reunited with his family and brought them back to the hospital with him saying that he couldn’t stand not being there when they found out about Tony. The Asgardians had walked off for a while, apparently reaching some kind of agreement that involved Valkyrie and Heimdall leaving while Thor and Loki stayed behind. Someone had left to get food for everyone. And still, they waited.

Finally – _finally_ – the doors opened, and Stephan and Bruce walked out. “He’s alive,” Bruce announced. The relief and joy that swept through the hall was palpable, but they knew there was more, so they held back on any celebrations. “He’s in a coma. The nerve damage was pretty severe, and his right arm was completely ruined. He’ll need a prosthetic now and we’re not sure how long it’ll take for him to wake up. But he’s alive and his brain is surprisingly undamaged.”

“I told you so,” Morgan announced, arms crossed. That caused any remaining tension to dissipate as everyone laughed in relief.

“We’ll transfer him upstairs in a few minutes,” Strange told them.

“To the Tower’s infirmary, please Dr. Strange,” Pepper corrected.

“The Tower?” Bruce asked.

“Yes. I bought it back a little while ago. Some things may need restocked, but I think we’d all rather he was at home with us.”

“Absolutely. Let me get cleaned up and I’ll get a portal open for everyone and see what needs restocking before I transfer him.” He peeked through the doors and turned back to Pepper. “You can go in now; it’s been cleaned up.” He and Bruce made their way down the hall to clean up.

Pepper knelt in front of Morgan before they all walked in. “Morgan, sweetheart, did you understand what Dr. Bruce meant about a prosthetic?”

“Nuh-uh,” she shook her head.

“Okay. During the fight, Daddy’s right arm was hurt really really badly. In order to make the rest of him better, the doctors had to take his arm off. He’s going to get a special kind of arm after he wakes up, but right now he just has bandages where his arm used to be.”

“What do you mean, take his arm off? Daddy’s gonna have a fake arm?”

Pepper looked up at Rhodey for help in trying to explain. Bucky strode up to them and cautiously knelt beside Pepper. When no one objected to how close he was to Tony’s family, he said, “Hi Morgan.”

“Hi.”

“Do you see how one of my arms is skin and the other is metal?” He held his hands out to her. She nodded, reaching out to feel both hands. “A long time ago, my left arm got hurt really bad. It got hurt so bad that I couldn’t use it anymore, it didn’t work. So some people made me a new arm to replace it.”

“Like when you put in a new light bulb ‘cause one blowed out.”

“Yeah, kind of.”

She gasped, eyes going wide. “Is Daddy gonna be part metal like Neb? That’s so cool!”

Pepper laughed again. “Yeah, Daddy’s gonna be part metal like Nebula. But, Morg, right now, Daddy doesn’t have a new metal arm.”

“So… Daddy only has one arm right now?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Can we go see him now?”

“Alright, let’s go.”

“Pepper?”

“Yes, Steve?”

“I think the rest of us are gonna head to the Tower. We can see him in the infirmary there.”

“Sounds good. We’ll be there soon.” She herded Nebula, Harley, and Peter who was carrying Morgan through the doors of the operating room.

Under a bright light, Tony lay completely still. He was draped in a white sheet, a tube under his nose was supplying oxygen and at least two IVs were hooked in his left arm. From the angle they walked in, the absence of a right arm was not immediately noticeable. They circled around him, keeping Morgan on his left side. Taking turns, each of them leaned over to hug him or whisper something while they waited for Strange to come in and tell them he was ready to be moved.

He was moved to the Tower’s infirmary about 10 minutes later.

Once he was laid out on the bed, Pepper took the kids to the kitchen where it seemed most everyone had gathered and where Natasha and Laura Barton were making a ridiculous amount of pancakes. “He’s in the infirmary,” she announced.

“FRIDAY is being reinstalled in the building as we speak. She should be fully up in a few hours,” Rhodey walked in behind Pepper. “I used my suit,” he shrugged.

There wasn’t much conversation after that, most of them were physically exhausted from the battle and emotionally exhausted from waiting in the hospital hallway. Pepper let everyone sort out the bedroom situation themselves. Some of them had bedrooms that had been originally given to them when Tony redesigned the Tower, but the others had to sort out guest rooms for themselves. She took Morgan back to the infirmary to say good night to Tony before going up to the Penthouse. At least, that was the plan.

Harley tried to sneak in behind her, Peter tried sneaking in by crawling on the ceiling, and Nebula strolled in as if daring someone to tell her she shouldn’t be there. Pepper chuckled. “Alright, there’s beds enough in here, I guess. Get some sleep, guys.”

Morgan curled up in the bed to Tony’s left and Pepper laid down behind her, wrapping herself around her daughter. Peter collapsed into the bed on Tony’s right, practically asleep before he hit the bed. Nebula’s mouth quirked just a little in what passed for a smile on her face as she gingerly lifted him up onto the pillow and tossed a blanket over him. Harley took the bed on Peter’s other side, curling up on his side. Nebula took up a position toward the end of the infirmary where she had a clear view of everyone and the door. She knew, because he’d said so, that Tony thought of her as family. Therefore, these two boys that she’d only heard stories about, Little Miss, and Pepper were her family. And, as she learned from Tony and Pepper over the years, one of the things being a real family meant was protecting each other.

In the wee hours of morning, when most people were sleeping, Peter started whimpering in his sleep. It was quiet enough at first that Nebula didn’t catch it. When she did, she didn’t immediately recognize the sound and part of her thought this was another sound humans made while they slept, like snoring. She vaguely remembered Morgan making a similar sound while she slept when she was smaller. Then the whimpering got louder, and she realized what it was. She’d heard that sound. She’d made that sound when she was younger. She pushed herself off the wall and made her way to Peter. Before she got there, Harley rolled out of his bed and into Peter’s in one, almost-smooth motion. He pulled the blanket down and spooned behind Peter, who was curled into a painfully tight ball. He wrapped an arm around the smaller boy, murmuring comforting nonsense into his ear until he finally stopped whimpering and relaxed from the ball he’d been curled up into.

“How did you know what to do?”

Harley twitched at the first word, not realizing anyone else was awake. He relaxed again as she walked into the light cast by the machines hooked to Tony. “My sister Abbie used to have nightmares when she was little. That’s how I helped her without waking her up.”

“Oh. And Abbie is where now?”

“I don’t know. She and our mom didn’t disappear like I did. They’re still out there somewhere, I guess. Pepper said she’s going to help me find them. Hopefully I can convince them to move here.”

“It is… nice having you and Peter here.”

“It’s nice being here, Nebula.” They were quiet for a minute. “Why are you awake?”

“I do not sleep. My father replaced much of my body that was organic. A result is not sleeping. Now, I am grateful for that result. I can watch over you all while you rest to ensure no further harm comes to my new family.” She walked fully up to the bed, draping the blanket over them and tucking it around them the way she’d once done it with Morgan. “Sleep, Harley. You are all safe here.”

“Thanks, Nebula.” Harley tucked his chin down a little, resting his forehead against the back of Peter’s head.

The next morning, Peter woke up with Harley still spooned behind him. Before he fully processed that information, Morgan popped into his eyesight, grinning at him. “Petey! Aunt May’s here! Uncle Happy went to get her.”

“Aunt May?” He rolled out of bed, landing on his feet beside Morgan.

“Hey baby.” He spun around to see May standing near the end of the bed he’d slept in. He ran into her arms and they held tightly onto each other, each of them crying. After a few minutes they pulled apart. They sat together on one of the hospital beds while May tried to catch him up on the big developments in her life over the past 5 years. He discovered that Ned and MJ blipped too. May had moved out of their apartment, the memories of Ben and Peter being too painful for her there. She had now been invited to come live in the Tower, which she was planning to do.

And… “You married Happy?!”

“Mm-hm, about a year and a half ago. I know that’s going to be a big adjustment for you, sweetie. But we’re happy together.”

“Okay, Aunt May. I’ll get used to it for you.”

“Good. Now, why were you and Harley sharing a bed?”

“No idea. He wasn’t there when I fell asleep.”

“I am surprised you remember falling asleep. I had to lift you onto the pillow because you fell asleep as soon as you landed on the bed,” Nebula walked over to them, carrying a breakfast tray, and stood beside Peter. She set the food down on one of the rolling hospital tables.

“Hey, Nebula. Thanks for that. Do you know why Harley was in my bed?”

She nodded. “You started whimpering in the night. Harley said it was a nightmare, like his sister Abbie used to have. He laid behind you and whispered for a while until you stopped making that noise and relaxed again.”

“Oh. I guess that makes sense. I’m surprised I didn’t wake up; I usually do when I have nightmares,” he shrugged. “What’s going on out there?” He asked May, nodding toward the outside of the building.

“Utter chaos. Same as it was when everyone vanished except in reverse. There apparently aren’t as many car wrecks and no plane crashes. No one has appeared in mid-air either, so I can only assume that the people who were in planes at the time have reappeared on the ground. Pepper’s organizing a small press conference with Rhodey and Steve at the lead, explaining what happened.”

“And Steve? I thought, with the Accords…?”

“Yeah, I’m not exactly sure about that. After everyone vanished, the Avengers who were left banded together. Except for Tony, who focused Pepper and then Morgan. Apparently, those that needed it were pardoned a few years ago and the Accords have been updated, but you’ll have to ask one of them for details. Now, eat the breakfast Nebula brought. There’s time to sort everything out.” Peter took the tray off the table, setting it on his lap and digging in. “Oh! Happy and I stopped and picked up clothes for you and Harley. The bags are in the penthouse when you’re ready to change.”

Harley woke up not long after that and the two of them went up to the penthouse to change after he ate breakfast. They found a deck of cards and brought them back to the infirmary with them. Using one of the beds as a table, they taught Morgan and Nebula to play Go Fish as a way to pass the time while Rhodey and Steve were doing the press conference.

After more rounds than they could count, Steve and Rhodey walked in, followed by Natasha, Clint, Sam, Bucky, and Bruce who checked on Tony’s vitals. They announced that everything had gone as well as possible with the press conference. The group of them stayed in the infirmary with them, keeping watch over Tony. Steve stood a little removed from the group, arms crossed tight over his chest.

Harley looked up to see him glowering at everyone and snorted. “I feel like I’m in detention again.” When Peter raised an eyebrow at him, he nodded in Steve’s direction.

Peter laughed, stood to turn his chair around before sitting back on it and, doing his best impression of Captain America, said, “So, you got detention. You screwed up. You know what you did was wrong. The question is, how are you gonna make things right?” Harley was leaning forward, laughing, but Peter kept going. “Maybe you were trying to be cool. But take it from a guy who’s been frozen for 65 years,” now he could hear the others laughing behind him. “The only way to really be cool, is to follow the rules.”

“When did you make that up?” Clint asked, laughing.

“I didn’t. That’s a real video I was shown in detention.”

“You made PSAs?” Natasha turned to him.

“You made PSAs about _following the rules_?” Bucky grinned. “The only guy I know who’s broken more rules than he’s followed?”

“There’s more,” Harley laughed. Peter nodded as Harley explained, “There’s one for gym class, one for eating healthy, one for health class about your body changing,” Steve groaned and dropped onto the floor to sit.

“It was a public relations thing SHIELD wanted me to do after the battle with Loki,” he explained. “Wait, how many detentions did you get to be able to memorize that, kid?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t actually get _any_ detentions until after Berlin.” The heroes all got quiet and there was much uncomfortable shifting after that.

“Huh?” Harley looked to him.

“Mr. Stark took me with him to the fight in Berlin.”

“Kid, how old were you then?” Clint asked.

“15, why?”

“Oh god. I knew you’re young, but I didn’t realize you’re still actually a _child_. Oh god. I dropped part of an airport on a kid,” Steve dropped his face into his hands and Sam and Bucky dropped onto the ground beside him.

“Better than the building,” Peter shrugged. He stood up from where he’d been playing cards and sat cross-legged in front of Steve. “Listen, you were probably right, that there was stuff I didn’t understand going into that fight. And, honestly, you didn’t hurt me much. I heal fast enough that by the time I got back to the hotel I had a couple of almost-gone bruises and a stubborn black eye.”

“Kid, I’m so sorry.”

“He’s not,” May interjected. Everyone looked up at her in shock. “He had posters of you in his room. Probably made his whole day to actually get to fight you,” she shrugged.

“May!”

“What? It’s true,” she grinned at him.

“So not the point!” She just laughed, completely unrepentant. Peter turned back to Steve but didn’t say anything for a minute. “She does have a point, I’m not sorry. I had fun,” he shrugged.

“You had _fun?_ ” Sam asked in disbelief.

“Okay, so probably should give some background for that to make sense,” he took a deep breath and launched into his tale. “When I was 14, I was bitten by a radioactive spider. It caused something in my DNA to mutate and now, I can heal fast, stick to things including ceilings and flying jets. I have enhanced senses and am faster and more agile than normal people. And I’m stronger too. Like, a lot stronger. And I’d never actually gotten to test how strong I am against an actual person and not in just like stopping cars or buses. I’d never gotten to use my strength in a fight before that because bank robbers are normal people and I didn’t want to actually kill them or anything, so I held back. So yeah, I had fun.”

They were all quiet for a minute, processing that information. “So, stopping my arm, that was all you, not the suit?”

“All me. That was pretty cool too, actually,” he grinned at Bucky.

“And the webs?” Sam asked.

“Made those in chem class. Took me a while to get the formula right, but once I did, they’re pretty easy to make. Made the web-shooters myself too.”

“Honestly, what did any of you expect? He’s one of Tony’s kids, they’re all geniuses,” Pepper, who had come into the room at some point in the conversation, said while everyone else was staring at Peter in shock. “I brought more games. If the four of you insist on being in here all the time, I can at least help keep you entertained,” she set a few board games down on the end of the bed they’d been using.

“Awesome. Go Fish was starting to get boring,” Harley reached for the games, choosing Candy Land to start next. Laughing a little to himself, Peter placed his hands on the ground just behind himself and twisted himself up into a hand stand then walked on his hands to his seat. He twisted so his feet landed on the seat then pulled himself upright, so he was crouched on his seat. “You forgot to mention the flexibility,” Harley commented as he sat correctly in his chair.

“Did I?” he grinned.

“Mm-hm. That was pretty cool, though.”

“You can just do that? No warming up or stretches or anything?” Nat asked.

He shrugged again. “Radioactive spider,” he said as an explanation.

“One day soon, Queens, we should get you down into the training room Tony had built.”

“That would be awesome!” He grinned, but kept his attention on Harley explaining the rules of Candy Land to Nebula and Morgan. It’d been ages since he’d played and he needed the refresher too.

Morgan went down for a nap after two rounds of Candy Land and Harley, Peter, and Nebula fell quiet, no longer playing. Harley wasn’t sure about the other two, but he had turned to focus on the machines monitoring Tony. People had been coming in and out of the infirmary so frequently that he barely paid attention when the doors opened again.

“Harley?” Pepper called out.

He turned to her and jumped out of his seat, running to the doors and throwing himself into his mom’s arms. His mom and Abbie, who was now nearly as tall as he was, wrapped their arms around him, all of them crying. Everyone else in the infirmary stayed away, giving the family as much space and privacy as they could. When they broke apart, Harley ushered them out into the hallway.

He was gone so long with his family, that Morgan woke up from her nap. “Where’d Harley go?” she asked.

“You remember that Daddy told you Harley has a mom and another sister?” Pepper sat beside her on the hospital bed.

“Yes.”

“Well, with everyone coming back, they knew that Harley would have come back too. When he didn’t answer the phone at their old house, they called me. I had them flown out here as a surprise for Harley.”

“Oh. Does this mean Harley’s gonna go away again and live with his mom and other sister? I don’t want him to go away again. I _like_ having Harley and Peter and Nebula.”

“No, munchkin, I’m not going anywhere,” Harley strolled back into the room, and sat on the bed facing Pepper and Morgan. “Apparently, when they talked on the phone, your mom told my mom that they could live here with all of us if they wanted. So, we’re staying here.”

“Yay!” Morgan launched herself at Harley, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“How’d it go?” Peter asked quietly, a few minutes later while Nebula and Morgan were trying to decide which game to play next.

“Good. Weird, but good. My little sister is now two years older than me. I saw her two days ago and she was a bratty 14-year-old with braces. Now she’s a 19-year-old college student. So that’s gonna take a while to get used to.”

“You were born first, I feel like that still makes you the older brother.”

Harley laughed. “Yeah, I don’t think Abbie’s gonna go for that.”

That night at dinner, everyone gathered to eat together in the main kitchen. “Everyone, this is Harley’s mom and sister, April and Abbie,” Pepper gestured to them once everyone was sitting down.

Peter’s aunt, sitting across from Harley’s mom, started laughing. “Hi April, I’m May,” she held out her hand, still chuckling. Peter snorted and everyone else up and down the table laughed too. Gradually, everyone introduced themselves to the Keeners.

By the end of the meal, pretty much everyone was involved in some sort of lively discussion that varied from group to group. Abbie was a little star-struck and was quieter than Harley could ever remember her being, but she was still talking to Clint’s kids and Morgan. April and May were talking with Stephen, Sam, and Thor, who was occasionally adding comments to Bruce’s story. Bruce was telling everyone else – Rhodey, Pepper, Steve, Bucky, Natasha, Clint, Laura, Scott, Hope, Wanda, Harley, and Peter – about his time as the Hulk on Sakkora, a story he hadn’t felt up to sharing with anyone until recently. Loki sat near Thor, contributing to Bruce’s or Thor’s conversations as he wanted.

Nebula, however, was staring pretty intently at Bucky’s left arm, with quick glances at Peter and Harley. “Something wrong?” Bucky asked her, as Bruce finished telling his story.

“No. Just wondering how your arm is made. And if… well, if you would let us borrow it?”

“Borrow my arm?”

“We cannot use the composition of my cybernetics. I do not know how Tony’s body would react. But _you_ are human. We can use plans of your arm to build him one.”

“We?”

“Peter, Harley, and myself. Morgan too, if she wants to help.”

Peter and Harley turned quickly to look at Bucky, both silently pleading with him to allow them to look at his arm. Unable to resist the combined pleading looks, he sighed and asked, “Do you want just the arm first, or do you want to see how it’s connected to my shoulder?”

“Both,” the three of them said together.

“I can show you where Tony’s lab is,” Bruce offered.

Together the five of them made their way to the lab. Morgan, at Pepper’s request, stayed with her. Bucky disconnected his arm and, when asked what it was made of, called Shuri to explain. As “an inadequate thank you” for what he’d done, T’Challa had some vibranium sent to them that they could use to construct Tony’s new arm. Bucky sat on one of the tables while Nebula carefully explored his shoulder joint, figuring out how it was connected to the tissue and nerves there. Peter and Harley worked together on how exactly his arm was constructed, how it moved and responded, paying particular attention to the fingers as they knew fine motor skills would be important for Tony.

They had all the whiteboards lined up in one area as well as keeping notes on the computers. By the time Pepper called them out of the lab and made them go to bed, the three of them thought they’d be able to make an arm for Tony, as long as they could make a matching shoulder joint to attach to his body. They decided they would make both and then talk to Pepper and Rhodey about whether it should be attached before or after Tony woke up.

After a lengthy discussion with Pepper, Rhodey, and both doctors two days later, it was decided that they would have to wait until he had woken up. They did, however, wheel in the Cradle to heal what remained of his shoulder joint. This way, when he was awake and ready, they could do the surgery to attach the new shoulder as soon as possible.

The three of them made two prototype arms, one of them looked as close to human flesh as they could get metal to look, and the other Morgan was in charge of decorating. She ended up deciding to make it red and gold, and they couldn’t be sure if she chose that because of Iron Man or not. One afternoon, a week after the battle, she sat starring at Bucky’s arm in an eerily similar way to the way Nebula had done. Reaching some kind of decision, she nodded to herself before grabbing Peter’s and Nebula’s hands, calling to Harley, and pulling them all to the lab again.

“Bucky’s arm has stuff on it up here,” she pointed to the top of the red and gold prototype. “I think Daddy’s should too. Something about being the bestest Daddy.” After much discussion, they settled on “tattooing” ‘Universe’s Bestest Dad’ on the outer shoulder of both arms. Peter and Harley programmed two machines to do the work at the same time and they sat back to watch for a few minutes before leaving FRIDAY in charge.

They went back to the infirmary and pulled out ‘Chutes and Ladders’ to play. They didn’t watch much tv to occupy themselves, because their minds tended to wander, and the board games tended to keep their attention longer. It was just the four of them in the infirmary right then, everyone else had something else to be doing that was keeping them away right then. It wouldn’t last long, either Pepper, Rhodey or Steve would be back within the hour. And one of the doctors checked in every few hours too.

Morgan looked up from the board to laugh at something Peter said and went completely still for a split second before launching herself over the bed, past Peter, and onto Tony’s bed, screaming, “DADDY!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Harley’s mom’s name is April just so I could enjoy that brief moment with Aunt May and so I can keep saying ‘April and May’ whenever I feel like it. Also, since we don’t know exactly how much younger Abbie was in IM3, here’s the general timeline I’m using for her: There were 6 years between IM3 and IW. Abbie was 8 in IM3, 14 in IW, and is now 19 (2 years older than Harley, instead of 3 years younger). Also, I know Bucky’s new arm doesn’t have the star on it, but let’s pretend there’s a design there that we couldn’t see in the movies. Also, I played with Peter’s age and the timing of Homecoming and IW. Let’s just pretend he was in his senior year at the beginning of IW.  
> Finally, did you know that Harley’s sister doesn’t have a name in canon? At least based on what I’ve been able to find. I think it’s pretty freaking delightful that, as a fandom, we’ve decided her name is Abbie/Abby.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony wakes up and has a few very important conversations. Nebula is a great older sister, despite what she thinks. Peter, Harley, MJ, and Ned discuss being dusted.

Morgan looked up from the board to laugh at something Peter said and went completely still for a split second before launching herself over the bed, past Peter, and onto Tony’s bed, screaming, “DADDY!”

The other three turned or stood up to see Tony’s eyes wide open, his one arm wrapping around Morgan. Harley vaulted over the bed and reached Tony’s bedside at about the same time as Peter and Nebula. Nebula pushed the emergency call button. They all leaned in to hug him around Morgan, pulling away when they heard a veritable stampede of people making their way toward them.

Things happened quickly after that. Bruce and Stephen checked Tony over, making sure he was doing as well as he seemed to be. Pepper curled on her chair beside his bed with her head on his arm, and her arm wrapped around both him and Morgan. The room filled with people, every Avenger and their allies who were still in the Tower, coming to see Tony for themselves. Rhodey stood with Peter, Harley, and Nebula, just behind Pepper. Tony was given water when he asked and then told they’d slowly build up to solid foods and he could have a cheeseburger later. Then, the moment they all dreaded.

Tony turned to look at Bruce and asked, “My arm?”

Everyone fell quiet and let the doctors explain. “The energy of the Stones was almost too much for your body to handle. We all thought you died until Peter noticed your arc reactor flickering. However, it _was_ too much for your arm to handle. Your arm was…. Well, there’s no easy way to say this. It was burnt to cinders. So much so that when I tried to touch your hand, it crumbled.” Bruce paused and Stephen took over.

“We had to amputate at your shoulder, including the scapula and clavicle. We used the Cradle Dr. Cho created to heal the amputation wound so your prosthetic can be attached within the next couple days, as soon as you’re able to move up to eating solid food again.”

“And me, Neb, Pete, and Harley made new arms for you!” Morgan interjected.

“Did you?” He looked up at the older three. “Good,” he smiled before turning back to the doctors. “How long was I out?”

“A week. But you’re making a full recovery. You’ll have to do physical therapy to get walking again because you were in a coma. And you’ll need to learn to use the new arm. But otherwise, there’s no infections, no other tissue damage, no brain damage we’ve found on any of the scans,” Bruce explained. “The universe is adjusting remarkably fast to having everyone back in it. And, you managed to save more people than we thought possible.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The Asgardians who survived the death of their planet and were killed on their spaceship trying to get here before the Snap happened, have all been brought back,” Pepper explained.

“And so have I,” Natasha stepped forward. “Hey, Stark.”

“Romanov! Good to see you. Missed you.”

“Yeah, I missed you too,” she smiled at him.

Over the next few hours, everyone there got a chance to talk to Tony, then filtered out until the only people left were Morgan, Pepper, Peter, Harley, and Nebula. Tony, with help, sat up in his bed and took time to individually hug his kids, focusing a little extra on Peter and Harley. He was filled in on everything he had missed over the week since the battle, mostly by Pepper since the kids had been staying in the Tower.

“So, when do I get to see these arms you made for me?” He asked after Pepper was done.

“We’ll go get them now, if you want,” Peter said.

“That’d be great, Underoos.” Morgan slipped off the bed and, grabbing Harley’s hand, tried to climb up onto his back. He laughed and knelt down for her to properly get on his back. They trooped out and left Tony and Pepper alone.

“Hey Tony.”

“Hi Pep. I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t be,” she started crying. “Just swear to me, no more Iron Man. You can build a Legion if you need to, but no more you in a suit. Tony, I almost lost you.”

“Shh, come here,” he put his arm around her shoulder as she leaned in to put her head on his chest. “I promise, Pep. No more Iron Man. Possibly a Legion, but no more Iron Man. I’ll officially be the best trophy husband in the world.” She chuckled a little, as he’d meant her to. They were quiet a minute and then he said, “The four of them seem to be getting along well.”

Pepper sat up, nodding. “They haven’t separated since I brought Harley to the hospital while Bruce and Stephen were working on you. Peter and Nebula followed from the battlefield of course. I had Happy bring Morgan to me. And then I called Harley’s home phone, just in case. I asked one of the other sorcerers to open a portal for him. They’ve been practically fused together ever since. And, except for trips to your lab, showers, and some meals, they’ve been in here. Playing board or card games while waiting for you to wake up.”

“Where have they been sleeping?”

“Nebula stands guard back there where she can see everyone. Morgan and I sleep on that bed, Peter’s here, and Harley’s there,” she gestured. “Well, Harley’s there when Peter’s not having a nightmare. He usually hears it first, wakes up, and gets Peter calmed down pretty quickly. Nebula told me that he usually gets him calmed down without Pete waking up. The first night the boys tried sneaking in, and Nebula didn’t bother trying to sneak. So, I agreed we could all spend the night here. Then it became a normal thing. None of us have actually been to our rooms for more than half an hour or so.”

“And unless I’m much mistaken, ‘here’ is the Tower?”

“Mm-hm. I bought it back while you were in surgery. There’s no room at the cabin for all the Avengers and no one wanted to be separated from each other yet. Even Clint brought his family to us instead of going to them.”

“Pepper, you’re amazing,” he leaned up to kiss her quickly.

~~~~~~~

Nebula, Peter, Harley, and Morgan headed toward the lab, Morgan humming happily and playing with Harley’s hair.

“He’s gonna like them, right?” Peter, the one of them most prone to showing or voicing how nervous he was, spoke up.

“He will.” Nebula, still not totally used to the idea of being an older sister and of being a sibling who wasn’t being forced to compete against her siblings, tried to remember something that may comfort Peter. “The first year I was here, I was introduced to the concept of gift-giving purely out of affection. Gifts I had received before had been given with an ulterior motive. However, Tony and Pepper introduced me to the idea of giving someone something because you enjoy their company or because that something made you think of them. The first time I gave such a gift, it was to Tony. I had gathered different kinds of paper and folded them up into these small triangles that he insists are footballs, but which look absolutely nothing like a ball of any kind. I had folded perhaps twenty of these paper triangles and presented them to him,” her lips twitched up at the corner. “Do you know how he reacted?” Both boys shook their heads. “He was delighted. We sat in the kitchen of the cabin and played paper football together for hours.” She was quiet a moment. “My point is, he will like them because we made them with him in mind. We designed them _for_ him.”

“Thanks, Nebula. That’s reassuring,” Peter leaned into her arm just a little as they walked.

“Good.”

“Why paper footballs though?” Harley asked.

“For the moment it is sufficient to say that my father was a terrible father. He did not actually care for me except in how I was useful to him. When we left Titan, Tony and I were the only survivors. We had only each other for company. Instead of looking at me and seeing the daughter of his enemy, he saw a companion. Someone who he could perhaps rely on. During that long period, he taught me how to play paper football. And he taught me that just because something is a competition does not mean it must be taken seriously and cannot be fun. I wanted him to understand how important he had become to me as well.”

Peter and Harley stopped and waited for Nebula to realize they had. “Thanos was your father?” Peter asked when she turned and doubled back to them.

“Technically, he took me from my home planet and raised me to be his adopted daughter and lieutenant,” her eyes flicked to Morgan, and Peter and Harley understood that there was more that she wouldn’t share in front of the little girl. “But yes, I called him father.”

“Nebula, I’m going to hug you now, okay?” Peter opened his arms but didn’t move forward until she nodded. Harley and Morgan hugged her together after Peter let her go.

“Why are we hugging?”

“Because we like you,” Morgan explained, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“Because we wanted to,” Harley shrugged.

“Because it seemed like you could use a reminder that we’re your family now after talking about such an intense topic,” Peter answered. She nodded once and they made their way into the lab.

In the time they had been gone since setting the machines to tattoo Tony’s new arms, the machines had finished their jobs. Each of them had ‘Universe’s Bestest Dad’ etched into the metal. Peter and Nebula each grabbed an arm and Harley grabbed the shoulder joint that would attach to his body and they quickly made their way back to the infirmary.

“We made two, but they’re the same except for the paint job,” Harley commented as they walked over to his bed. They wheeled over a hospital tray table and set the shoulder joint and both arms on top of it, fingers pointed toward Tony, palms down. “T’Challa sent us some vibranium to use for them, so they’re not heavy.”

Tony nodded, reaching out to move the fingers of the red and gold arm. He smiled, just a little, at the flexibility of the joints. “Very nice,” he pulled the arm toward himself, so it slid off the table, caught sight of the etching on the deltoid area, and went completely still. He traced each of the letters, tears gathering in his eyes then slowly dripping down his face.

“Morg said you needed to have something written there. We decided what it should be together,” Peter said softly.

Tony nodded and pushed the table away, leaving the arm he held to fall completely on the bed. “Come here, all of you,” he held his arm up, tears still dripping. Harley dropped Morgan so she was against his chest and the other three gathered close, leaning into him as much as possible. Tony wrapped his arm as far around them as he could manage, holding his kids to him for as long as they’d allow.

They broke apart when the infirmary doors opened. They all turned to see April and May walk in together, each carrying a tray of drinks. “You can’t have them. I’m keeping them,” Tony announced to the two women.

“Oh really?” May asked, eyebrow raised.

“Really,” Tony lifted the arm to show them the etching on the deltoid.

“Guess you _have_ to keep them now,” April smiled, running her fingers through Harley’s hair.

“Good thing we’re already moved in,” May commented to April.

“Mm-hm,” she agreed. “Here, we brought you this,” she handed one of the drinks to Tony and passed the others around. “Strawberry banana smoothies. It’s not solid food, but it’s better than plain water.”

“You moved in?” Tony took a drink of his smoothie. “God, that’s good. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. And yes, we did. Pepper invited us.” May set both trays at the end of Peter’s bed.

“We have too many guest rooms in this tower. There are still spare rooms.”

“Yeah, but not everyone stayed. We know way more people who might come visit now,” Peter commented. Pepper nodded her agreement.

For the rest of the day, any time someone came in to see Tony, he held up the red and gold arm and demanded they “Look at what my kids made me.” And every time, whoever had walked in would either get a sappy smile on their face and “Aw, how sweet” when they saw it or they’d grin really wide and say “Yeah, it’s pretty awesome.”

The four of them stayed in the room, playing cards, just content to be around a conscious Tony again. Dinner was brought in and everyone came in with it, sitting on the floor or beds as they welcomed Tony into the group meals that had quickly become something of a tradition. When Pepper announced it was time for Morgan to get ready for bed, Harley and Peter took her up to the Penthouse. There, all three of them took turns showering and changed into their matching Hello Kitty pajamas that May had gotten as a joke but were really comfortable. They then made their way back to the infirmary. They met Nebula outside the doors and discovered that she had gone and changed into her matching pajamas too. Despite the fact that she didn’t sleep, she liked that she’d been given a matching pajama set. It made her feel included. And they _were_ very comfortable.

Tony saw them almost immediately and started laughing. “I love it!”

“Aunt May got them for us,” Morgan bounded over.

“They’re comfortable,” Harley shrugged.

Morgan climbed up into Tony’s bed, hugging him tightly. “Good night, Daddy. I’m glad you woke up fast.” She slid off his bed and curled up in hers, falling asleep in seconds.

“She gave a speech while you were in surgery,” Nebula commented, staring down at the little girl. “Would you like to see it?”

“Sure.” Nebula stood still at the end of Morgan’s bed and focused on a spot just past the end of Tony’s bed. Her mechanical eye whirred for a few seconds and then projected the image of the hospital hallway with Morgan balanced on Nebula’s knee. He watched as she told everyone there that he would be okay because he had told her so and he had never broken his word to her.

“I’m still not sure if it was Morgan’s speech there, or Natasha’s reappearance right after she finished that did it. But the whole atmosphere changed after that. There was hope when there hadn’t been before,” Pepper said.

The next morning, Tony insisted that things continue as close to normal as possible, so everyone went upstairs for breakfast, with the exception of Pepper and Stephen who stayed with him. When they were done, Stephen took their breakfast dishes up to the kitchen, leaving the two of them alone, but only for a moment.

Steve and Rhodey walked in together just after Stephen left. “Right, I’ll leave you to it,” Pepper kissed Tony’s cheek and headed out of the infirmary.

“The doctors say you’ll be starting rehab on your legs today. Need a rehab buddy?” Rhodey asked.

“As long as it’s you, Platypus. Why are you guys really here?”

“I’m sorry. I know it’s not enough, it never could be. But I’m sorry. There were so many better ways that whole situation could have been handled, and I….”

“Rogers, stop. It’s over and done with now. I get it better now than I did then, why you chose Barnes. And I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same for Rhodey. Let’s just…. I don’t want to keep fighting about this. We both know why we did what we did and that we would likely do the same thing again. So let’s just agree to not put each other in that position again, okay?” Tony held out his hand.

“Yeah, yeah okay,” Steve reached for his hand then sat in Pepper’s chair beside him.

“So, unless I was much mistaken yesterday, I did see Loki back in my Tower?”

“Yes, you did. He was one of the Asgardians Thanos killed on the ship that was taking them away from Asgard. He’s been… surprisingly quiet since he got here. From what I understand, he was stuck on the same planet Bruce was stuck on as Hulk for a while. Not as long as Bruce, but longer than Thor was there. I don’t know all of what happened after Thor took him off of Earth, but something about him seems different. More mellow and not hell-bent on destroying things.”

“Good to know. Now, when are you and Barnes getting married?”

“We’re not…. He’s my best friend. It’s not like that at all. Why would you think…? I don’t understand where –“

“Where I got that idea? Yeah, I think you’re protesting just a little too much there, Cap. Well, when you guys do decide on a date, let me know.”

“Tony. Seriously. It’s not like that with us.”

“That is because you, Capsicle, have not said anything to Barnes about it. It absolutely _could_ be like that if you would just say so.”

“No, absolutely not.”

“Fine. But when I’m right, and you guys do get married, I am absolutely giving you away. I’m claiming that right, right now.”

“Whatever, Stark,” Steve rolled his eyes.

~~~~~~~

Morgan sat at the table beside Nebula while Harley and Peter cleared away the breakfast dishes. Meals together had become an important part of life in the Tower since they all got back. There was a rotation of who was cooking when and who was cleaning up after them. When Harley and Peter finished loading the dishwasher and cleaning up the kitchen, they made their way back to Morgan and Nebula.

“What’re we doing today, guys?” Peter asked.

“I wanna build something else in the lab. I dunno what, but _something_ ,” Morgan kicked her legs under the table.

“I’ve got the best idea. Come on,” Harley grinned and the four of them headed back to the lab. They had discovered that everything really had been left in Tony’s lab, if he hadn’t wanted to take it with him. It was stocked with things that were at every hardware store, which might explain why he hadn’t taken it with him. They’d asked Clint to head out to the nearest store for things they didn’t already have, like spray paint and hair spray. Nebula and Peter were tasked with cutting down the PVC pipe to the lengths they needed while Harley taught Morgan to do most of the actual assembling. Then, each of the four of them took their own project and decorated it with the spray paint. They tested their new weapons against the same back wall Tony had used to test new repulsers and then left the lab to show off their handiwork.

“I’ve armed the others,” Harley happily informed Tony, practically _skipping_ into the infirmary.

“Armed what others, how?”

“Daddy, Daddy! Harley showed us how to make potato guns!” Morgan ran into the room, her bright blue potato gun held above her head.

“There is something oddly satisfying about using potatoes as a projectile,” Nebula commented as she and Peter walked in behind Morgan, each of them holding their own potato gun.

“Right?” Harley grinned at her.

“No. Nonono. Why?” Tony moaned, flopping back on the hospital bed. “This is the worst.”

“Harley!” Peter gasped, staring down at his potato gun. “Potato cannon,” he looked up at the boy, wide-eyed with excitement.

“Potato cannon,” Harley’s voice carried the same excitement.

“What’s a cannon?” Morgan asked.

“It is like a gun, just bigger and meant to be placed on the ground in order to shoot it. Are potatoes large enough to fire from a cannon?” Nebula questioned.

“They are if you use a lot, like pellets in a shotgun shell.”

“No, absolutely not! I forbid the making of a potato cannon.”

All four of them looked at Tony. “Okay, deal,” Harley shrugged a shoulder.

“Thank you.”

“Harley!”

“What, Pete? He said he forbids ‘the making of _a_ potato cannon’. Like we were ever gonna stop at one,” he snorted. “Back to the lab!”

“To the lab!” Morgan scrambled off the hospital bed and they all trooped out again.

“You can’t do this! You’re all grounded! Just you wait until I’m walking normally again!” Tony shouted after them. Once they were safely down the hall, he turned to Rhodey and Steve and started laughing. “They’re making potato cannons! I wonder if I can convince them to put them out on the helipad?”

“Tell them they have to stay on the property,” Rhodey shrugged. “Nebula could figure out the best, strategic places to put them.”

“Your children are a menace to society,” Steve said, grinning.

“Probably,” Tony shrugged his one shoulder, uncaring for the moment just how much damage the four of them could cause in a single afternoon. “The Stones?”

“Nat and I took them all back to where they needed to go a couple of days ago. She managed to get into and out of Lehigh without running into anyone, as opposed to you and I. Made me wait outside the camp because she said I’d get caught for sure.”

“She was probably right. You almost did the first time.”

“Hello, Stark. Ready for physical therapy to start?” Strange floated into the infirmary.

“Hey Dr. Wizard. Yeah, I am. Sooner I can run around with my kids, the better.” Steve excused himself and Rhodey and Stephen helped Tony through his first two hours of physical therapy.

Strange told him that he made excellent progress on the first day, even though Tony felt like he hadn’t. He’d only managed to walk a handful of steps unassisted, and it was incredibly draining. “Relax, Stark. You’ll be up and about in no time. This is just from not using your legs for a week, not a brain injury. You’ll recover faster from this than if there’d been a brain injury. And, if you eat solid food for dinner tonight, we can do the surgery to attach the shoulder joint your kids made tomorrow.”

“Excellent,” Tony slumped back in his hospital bed. “And after that, I can go back up to my bed?”

“Yeah, after you wake back up.”

“Rhodey, I need Barnes.” Rhodey only raised an eyebrow before leaving to get the man. Pepper walked in as he left, Morgan on her hip.

“Did you know the children were making potato cannons?” She asked, setting Morgan on the end of the bed.

“What?” Tony put his hand on his chest, aiming for scandalized but completely ruining it with the grin on his face. “Who would allow such a thing?” Beside him, Morgan broke down in giggles.

Pepper only sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “As long as they don’t break anything or aim at other people, it’s fine,” she relented.

“Thanks, Mommy,” Morgan hopped off the bed and made for the doors. She stopped short when they slid open and Rhodey, Steve, and Bucky came in. “Hi, guys. Mommy said we can keep making our potato cannons! Isn’t that awesome?” She hugged Bucky’s legs, as he was the closest to her, then darted out the door and back up to the lab. Bucky stared after her, partly in shock and partly to avoid looking at her father.

“She’s an affectionate child. I blame Pepper, we all know it’s not me.”

“ _Wasn’t_ you. We all saw you with those kids yesterday,” Rhodey commented, nudging Bucky to get him moving all the way into the infirmary.

“Pull up a chair, Barnes. I got a few things I need to talk to you about.”

“Tony?”

“Pep, I nearly died. I’m not saving stuff to say at a more opportune time. I’m saying it now, while I can and while they’re here.” Bucky sat in one of the hospital chairs and stared at a spot just over Tony’s shoulder. Steve stood beside him, relaxed, but there for moral support. When it became clear that Barnes wasn’t going to actually look at him, Tony started. “Look, I’m just gonna be blunt about this. When I found out you were one of the people who got dusted, I wasn’t upset you were gone. The part of me that wasn’t consumed with losing Peter and Harley, was happy about it.” Bucky’s hands clenched on his thighs, but he didn’t say anything. “That mellowed with Morgan’s birth, but I still wasn’t upset you were gone. It wasn’t until she was about 3-years-old that I actually went through the file of what all had been done _to_ you, not just what you had done.”

Tony picked at the blanket for a minute. “I spent a few days in a spiral. I couldn’t decide if I was still furious with you, or if I pitied you,” he sighed. “My point is, I will never be able to get the footage of my parents’ deaths out of my head. But now, I understand better that it wasn’t _you_ making that choice. I still think Capsicle should have told me the truth, but I get why he didn’t. I don’t think you need forgiveness because it wasn’t your fault, but if you need to hear it from me, I can do that.”

They were both quiet for a minute, Bucky’s fists still tightly clenched. “Howard was my friend. Not as much as him and Steve were friends, but still friends. I….” He let whatever he was going to say drift off into silence.

Still not totally comfortable dealing with heavy topics for too long, Tony broke the silence with a topic change. “Also, I’m gonna need your help with the new arm. I’ve never had a prosthetic arm before and, from what I’ve heard, the kids used yours as a template for mine.”

“What?” Bucky’s attention snapped fully onto Tony.

“Yeah. Dr. Wizard said they’ll do the surgery to attach my shoulder joint tomorrow. I’ve got Rhodey helping with the leg rehab, but I need help with the new arm rehab. You’ve got a robot arm. My kids based my robot arm on yours. You’re the only choice than to help me get used to using my robot arm.”

“Yeah. Yeah, okay. I can help with that.”

Nebula, Morgan, Peter, and Harley did not need help deciding to put the potato cannons on the helipad. They reached that decision all on their own. The cannons had been designed to look just like a pirate ship’s cannons, long black barrels balanced on a wheeled platform. After they wheeled all four out onto the helipad, Nebula walked around surveying the whole thing then pointing to the best locations for each cannon. After they set up the cannons, the girls went back to the infirmary to visit Tony, Peter went in search of Aunt May, and Harley followed him.

“Aunt May, do you know where Ned and MJ’s parents are? Like, did they stay in their old apartments?”

“Yes, they did. I’m still in touch with them, just spoke to them two days ago actually. Here, Ned’s parents,” she handed him her ringing cell phone.

“Hello May,” a woman’s voice came through.

“Sorry, not Aunt May. Hi Mrs. Leeds.”

“Oh, Peter! Hi! How are you? NED!”

Peter pulled the phone away when she shouted. “I’m alright, Mrs. Leeds. How are you?”

“Getting better every day. It’s really good to hear your voice again, Peter. Anyway, here he is.”

“Hey man! What’s up?”

“Hey Ned. Listen, I was thinking of calling up MJ and us going to meet up someplace.”

“Dude, have you _been_ outside yet? It’s absolute chaos out there.”

“Okay, fair enough. Come to the Tower?”

“The Tower? Like, the old Avengers Tower?”

“As in was-the-old-is-the-current Avengers Tower.”

“We’ll go pick them up,” Steve was saying beside Aunt May, quietly enough that Ned couldn’t hear him.

“Listen, Ned. Just wait there, I’ll come get you and bring you to the Tower, okay?”

“Yeah, man. Do I need to bring anything?”

“New Lego set?”

“Sweet can do.” Peter had a similar conversation with MJ, then jumped into a car with Steve to go pick them up.

He spent a couple minutes visiting with Ned’s parents before reminding them that they still had to go pick up MJ and that their ride was sitting outside waiting for them. Conveniently, he had forgotten to tell Ned who exactly was driving them around.

“Dude,” Ned stopped with the door open.

“I know.”

“Dude, that’s…. That’s _Captain America_ ,” he stage-whispered.

“I know, Ned. Get in,” he gently shoved his friend into the back seat of the Audi. “Okay, MJ’s apartment next.” He sat, watching Ned, who was staring at the back of Steve’s head. “Ned?”

“Dude, how is this your life?”

Peter shrugged. “He dropped part of an airport on me one time. It’s the least he can do.” Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Steve’s flinch. “Sorry. One and only time I’m ever going to use that, I promise.”

“Fine Queens, as long as this is the only time.”

They rode in silence, Peter examining the new Lego First Order Star Destroyer set Ned had brought while Ned was in a state of excitement beyond words. MJ, when they picked her up was much more relaxed about being picked up by Captain America. But then, when wasn’t MJ more relaxed then Ned?

Once they were set up in the living room and Ned was engrossed in building the Star Destroyer, he relaxed and stopped noticing just how many superheroes were around. Harley joined them moments after they arrived, sitting beside MJ while she sketched in her crisis sketchpad. The four of them made idle conversation while Ned and Peter built the Lego set. When they were done, the two of them sat against the couch MJ and Harley were sitting on and admired their work.

“What do you guys remember?” Ned asked after they fell quiet. “About being dusted, I mean. ‘Cause I don’t remember much. Like, it felt like blinking and everything was different.”

“I remember looking over at you and wondering where Peter was. He wasn’t beside you like he usually was when you guys got off the bus. And then, it seemed like I blinked and something about the school had changed but hadn’t changed,” MJ set her pencil down. She and Ned had actually gotten to school with the rest of their classmates while Peter had jumped on the spaceship with Tony. “My mouth was really dry though, like I hadn’t had something to drink in hours.”

“I was headed out to my garage workshop. I was about halfway there and I tasted campfire ash. You said the school seemed different but not different? It was kinda the same for me. The paint job on the garage, which I knew was fresh because I’d just done it three weeks before, looked faded in a way it definitely shouldn’t. I turned around and went back into the house and everything was covered in dust, like no one had been there in a long time.”

“I felt it coming,” Peter picked at the bottom hem of his jeans. He didn’t know it, but he had the attention of his friends as well as April, May, Clint, Natasha, and Steve who were all just outside of the living room and had stopped to listen when they heard what the kids were talking about. “I knew… I knew that we had lost on Titan, but I didn’t know how any of the other battles were going or if we would lose completely. But I felt it the moment we did lose. I think it was a combination of my Spidey-sense warning me of the danger and my healing factor trying to keep me alive. I, um, I could feel the ash in the back of my throat before I actually faded away. And I could _feel_ the pain of being pulled apart,” he rubbed his hands over his arms and his friends moved closer, so they were all touching each other. “It really really sucked, guys.”

Outside the living room, May had her hands over her mouth, tears streaming down her face as she listened to her nephew remember being turned to ash. April wrapped an arm around her in support and Natasha and Steve moved closer to the two women, offering what support they could. Clint took off to find his family and make sure that they hadn’t felt any of what Peter had. He hoped they only had the ‘blink and things were different’ memory that the other three kids had.

Back in the living room, the four teens sat huddled together in quiet understanding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know that technically potato cannon and potato gun are interchangeable words for the same thing, but the idea was to make it clearer that the cannons they built are too big to carry comfortably for someone who's not Thanos-sized. Also, I'd just like to mention that this story is complete so rest assured that I won't stop updating halfway through or anything like that.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some family fun, a prank, an injury, and the beginnings of Parkner (finally).

Over the next week, the world (and probably the rest of the universe) adjusted to having their population restored. There were programs set up to help with the sudden influx of people and overall, everyone was adjusting well. One area that took time to adjust was the education system, at least in the United States. Schools were over-crowded to a level they weren’t used to. Thankfully for Peter, Harley, MJ, and Ned, they’d all been partway through their senior year of high school and were able to finish out the year through an online program.

For Peter and Harley, this meant getting to spend more time in the lab at the Tower and helping Tony to update the lab, once he was recovered enough that the doctors couldn’t stop him. Most of their days were spent in the lab with each other, Tony, usually Nebula, and sometimes Morgan. They all spent evenings out in the main areas of the Tower. It had become very important for the Tower’s inhabitants to make time for each other in a way they hadn’t done before the Civil War. They had group meals and movie nights and were generally available to each other all the time.

Peter, because he knew now how chaotic it was in the rest of the city, had started patrolling again. Despite the chaos, or perhaps because of it, the crime rate was actually lower than he had originally anticipated. Still, he felt better that he was out _doing_ something. On one such night, things were slow enough that he was aimlessly swinging around the city while waiting for Karen to inform him of any crime he needed to be aware of.

Tony had been awake for just over a week and had been walking like normal for three days. Peter had adjusted to suddenly having a larger family. Morgan didn’t much care for biology so, though she had been told that Peter had different parents than she did, she still saw him as her older brother. Peter himself would allow no one to ruin that for the two of them. After the initial awkwardness of suddenly having a five-year-old sister, he was attached to the little girl.

Things with Nebula were a little different, but not much. From what he could tell, Nebula hadn’t had a good relationship with any of her other siblings but she was more familiar with the concept of adopted siblings than Morgan. However, her previous family situation seemed to make her determined that this family that she now found herself in would be better in every way possible. If Peter had been asked what he wanted in an older sibling when he was younger, he was pretty sure Nebula would have checked every one of those boxes. She was awesome. She was great and creative in the lab (probably due to her own cybernetic enhancements), willing to listen if he asked, willing to pretend to ignore his problems if he didn’t want to talk while still making herself available in case he changed his mind and more than willing to get into a fight defending him. Even though it was Steve, and they had been fighting over the last pop tart.

Things were still… odd with him and Harley though. They weren’t jealous of each other and their place with Tony or anything, though apparently that had been a concern of some of the others. But Peter didn’t see Harley as a brother. If he were honest with himself, which he was trying to avoid doing in order to avoid making things awkward, he paid too much attention to the way Harley’s face lit up when he laughed or the way he stuck out his tongue while he was building in the lab or the way his hands looked as he worked on something particularly delicate, to feel brotherly feelings toward the other teen. He mostly stuck to assuming they were too close in age and that’s why he didn’t feel particularly brotherly toward Harley. Denial – it’s a powerful thing.

Peter swung onto the roof of his old apartment building and crouched on the edge, looming over the edge like a gargoyle in high-tech spandex. Something still felt…off about his new family and he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. He was staring, without seeing, down at the street when it hit him. It was Tony that still felt off. Not Tony himself, but his relationship with him. He had helped carve the words ‘Universe’s Bestest Dad’ into his new arms, he knew the man thought of him as a son (because he told Morgan they were siblings), and he knew he felt like the man was a father to him. But he still called him ‘Mr. Stark’ to his face. He only called him ‘Tony’ inside his own head. Smiling under the mask, he flipped off the building and made his way home.

The next afternoon, Peter sat beside Aunt May in the living room. Somehow, it was just the two of them and he didn’t know how long that would last in a common area, so instead of easing into the conversation, he blurted, “I’m gonna start calling him Dad.”

“FRIDAY, pause the tv.” May turned to look at him. “When did you reach this decision?”

“Last night. I mean, there’s no reason not to, right? I know who my birth father was and I still love him. I still love Uncle Ben. And I’m not trying to replace either of them, but he’s my dad now. It’s just…. Yeah, I dunno. It just feels _right_ , ya know? Like etching ‘Universe’s Bestest Dad’ on his arm felt right.”

“So, how and when are you going to tell Tony you’ve decided to call him Dad?”

“You too? Oh, thank god, I thought it was just gonna be me. That was nerve-wracking,” Harley strolled in and plopped on the couch beside Peter.

April took the chair on Harley’s other side. “We just had this conversation,” she told May.

“You are? You’re right, that’s a huge relief to know it’s not just me.”

“I just had an idea!” Harley sat up straight and reached to squeeze Peter’s arm. “We shouldn’t tell him we’re going to. We should just do it. Like at dinner tonight or something.”

Peter grinned. “You’re brilliant. I love it.”

That night at dinner, Peter and Harley were in their usual places at the table – Peter between May and Nebula, Harley between his mom and sister. Morgan was on Nebula’s other side, Pepper was beside April, and Tony was sat at the head of the table between them. Peter caught Harley’s eye who nodded.

Peter looked up at Tony and saw the bowl of rolls sitting in front of him. Perfect. “Hey, Dad? Would you pass me the rolls please?” Tony’s fork stilled and he looked up at him.

“Dad? You okay?” Tony’s whipped his head to look at Harley in a motion fast enough to make both boys wonder if he gave himself whiplash. Nebula snagged the bowl of rolls and set them in front of Peter with a hint of a smile.

After a few seconds, Tony pushed back from the table but stopped, unsure of which direction to go first. April and May pulled out Harley and Peter’s chairs then pushed at them until they got up and went to Tony. Tony stood and gathered both boys into a hug. The rest of the dinner table’s occupants were doing their best to pretend they didn’t see what was happening down at the end of the table in order to give the family as much privacy as they could. After a couple of minutes, Tony released both boys who went back to their seats. They all went back to their meals as if nothing had happened.

The next day, Peter was watching a movie with Morgan, Harley, Abbie, and Clint’s kids, Cooper, Lila, and Nathaniel.

“Hey, Queens!” Peter turned from where he sat on the couch to look at Steve, who stood with Bucky and Natasha in the archway. “You still up for practicing in the training room?”

“Absolutely,” he grinned and jumped over the couch, following the three of them out. “Do you want me to get my web-shooters?”

“Sure. The training room takes up most of the floor, two levels below us. Meet you there?” Steve asked.

Peter just nodded and took off to his bedroom. Quick as he could, he changed into a tank top and shorts and pulled on sneakers. He grabbed his web-shooters off his desk where he’d been tinkering with them, turned to his door, and stopped. With a grin, he turned back to the windows. “FRIDAY, will you open one of the windows into the training room for me?” He requested as he pushed his own window open. He saw a window two floors below him open and smiled. “Thanks, FRI.” He snapped the web-shooters onto his wrists and slipped out the window, crawling down to the training room window. He climbed in then crawled along the ceiling until he found Steve, Natasha, and Bucky who were standing just outside of the elevator. He flattened himself to the ceiling and watched them for a minute.

“He’s good at hand to hand, but he’s untrained with it. I expect most of what he did in Germany was instinct. He needs training,” Steve was saying to the other two.

Natasha nodded, “I didn’t see much of him fighting there, but I’ve seen some videos online. He’s got a lot of potential in a fight, but I agree he needs more training.”

“And you two think we’re the ones to provide that?”

“That would be awesome!” Peter watched as all three of them jumped and looked around. “Look up,” he laughed.

“How the hell did you…?” Bucky drifted off as the three of them looked up at him.

“I told you, I’m sticky,” he grinned down at them. He pulled both feet off the ceiling, so he was dangling by his hands, then dropped down, landing between Natasha and Bucky.

“That’s more than sticky, Queens.”

He shrugged, “Spiders walk on ceilings all the time. I’ll show you later if you want, but after the spider bite, I developed these tiny hairs on my skin. They’re microscopic but, as far as I’ve been able to tell, they’re the same type of hairs spiders have that allow them to crawl up walls and on ceilings. Which, before you ask, is how I got down here.”

“Which wall did you crawl on? There’s no wall that connects this floor to the others. At least, not without a floor in the way,” Natasha asked.

“Sure there is,” he pointed to the bank of windows where they could see that one of them was open.

“You crawled down two stories, on the _outside_ of a skyscraper?” When Peter nodded, Bucky dropped to sit on the floor. “Kid, you’re gonna give me a heart attack. I thought _Steve_ was reckless.”

“It’s not any more reckless than swinging around the city with webs I made in chemistry class,” he shrugged again. “I tested myself before doing any of that anyway. First by doing normal, parkour type stuff and then stretching the limits of that. And I tested how long I can stay stuck to something by sticking to my own ceiling, over my bed. I fell asleep and ended up being up there for 9 hours. My alarm woke me up.”

“Actually, I take it back. That’s way less reckless than Steve ever was. I still think you’re gonna give me a heart attack one day though.” Bucky stood without bracing his hands on the floor. “But speaking of tests, I know you said you’ve never gone all-out with your strength before Berlin….” Peter shifted a little, looking away from them. “What?”

“I um… I didn’t go all-out in that fight. I held back a little.”

“How little?” Steve asked. Peter shrugged. “Right. I agree with Bucky then, we’re testing your strength first. Let’s see if we can find a limit to that. What’s the most you’ve ever used your strength?”

“Um, there was this ferry boat that was cut in half that I tried to hold together. I’m not sure how long I could’ve done it if Dad hadn’t come along to help. And I’m not sure if the reason it was slipping was my strength or physics. I think I might just be too small to have held the whole thing together ‘cause it was split the long way instead of the short way,” he mimed it with his hands, showing that the boat was split from front to back instead of side to side.

The four of them stayed in the training room together, trying to find the limits of Peter’s strength and then working on basic hand-to-hand techniques. They all knew he was good at evading in a fight, but it was his skills when he couldn’t evade that they needed to work on.

Meanwhile, back in the living room, Harley stood up and quietly left the room moments after Peter did. Abbie, to his intense frustration, would not stop pointing out that she was now the older sibling, not him. It wasn’t so bad in the beginning; it was even kind of funny. But it had been going on since she’d gotten to the Tower and was more than a little annoying now. So, he decided to embrace his new younger sibling role. While she was still watching the movie, he hurried to his own room and grabbed a bottle out of his desk drawer. Quickly, he hurried down to Abbie’s room and slipped inside. Each room had its own bathroom and Abbie’s was no exception. Knowing she could get bored with the movie at any minute, he carefully poured the green dye into her shampoo bottle. Then, spying her green body wash, added some there too.

He shut the door to Abbie’s room with a grin and nearly jumped out of his skin at the voice behind him. “What are you doing?”

He turned to see Loki standing against the wall opposite him. “Oh, it’s you. Hi Loki, how’s your day going?” He started walking down the hall to his own room and Loki followed.

“It’s going well. Don’t change the subject.”

“I added green dye to my sister’s shampoo and body wash,” he held up the bottle. “She was getting annoying,” he opened his bedroom door and tossed the bottle in. He turned back to see Loki smirking. “What?”

“Nothing. Come find me if you have any more prank ideas.” When Harley just stared, Loki grinned and said, “God of Mischief, remember?”

“Oh, that’s gonna be so much fun,” Harley grinned. “Not today though. Let everybody think it’s just me, getting a little revenge on my sister. Give them a couple of days to relax.”

“I like the way you think,” Loki magicked a top hat, tipped it to Harley, and vanished it again before walking off down the hall.

Harley laughed and walked off the opposite direction, back to the living room. He sat back down beside Cooper and tried to focus on the movie. Instead, he kept thinking of prank ideas and various people who they would be best to play on. He pulled out his phone and started typing out his ideas with the initials of the best targets for each idea. He didn’t know the full extent of Loki’s abilities, but he knew he was magical so some of his ideas were intentionally vague to account for possibilities with the trickster’s magic. He was grinning down at his phone as he typed, which apparently caught Abbie’s attention.

“What’s so funny on that phone, little brother?” she reached toward him, grabbing at his phone.

He hit the power button on the side and held it just out of her reach. “I’m still bigger than you are, Abs.”

“Yeah yeah.” She sat back in her seat beside Morgan. “Hey Morgs, do you want to know what’s on Harley’s phone?”

“That is cheating, Abigail. And we don’t like cheaters, do we Morg?”

“Nope, cheating is bad,” Morgan hopped up from her spot, climbed into Harley’s lap, and curled up so her head was on his shoulder. “Why was that cheating, Harley?”

“Because Abbie knows that I don’t like to tell you ‘no’ unless I have to.”

“Oh!” Morgan stayed curled on his lap for a few more minutes, before sliding off and sitting beside him, on the opposite side from Cooper.

Harley made a valiant effort to pay attention to the movie, knowing Abbie was watching and waiting for him to pull his phone back out so she could find out what he’d been laughing at. He’d missed a good-sized chunk of it between pranking Abbie and writing out new prank ideas on his phone, so it was difficult to pay attention to it. As he was shifting to get more comfortable, the elevator doors slid open and Peter’s laughter interrupted their movie.

They all turned toward the source of the interruption and Harley had to clench his jaw to stop it from dropping. Peter stood between Bucky and Natasha in jogging shorts, tennis-shoes, and no shirt. Some corner of his brain registered that Peter was carrying his shirt but most of his brain was supplying helpful information such as: _ABS!_ or _Bet those pecs are super comfortable to lay against_ or _Oh. My. God._

“Petey!” Morgan’s voice from beside him jolted him a little as he remembered where he was and what was going on. “Shush! We’re watching a movie!” As Peter laughed again and made his way over, Harley hopped off the couch and practically bolted to his room, making a vague excuse to anyone who was listening.

Safely shut up in his room, Harley began to pace, muttering to himself the whole time. “What the hell Keener? Never reacted like _that_. Never seen muscle like that in person, either. When the fuck did he get _muscles?_ How does he hide them? Superheroes have to have muscles, duh. But still! Ok…okay, I can handle this. It’s just physical, right? I can ignore that. Or try not to be in the same room as a shirtless, sweaty Peter. Yeah. I got this. It’ll be fine. No reason to drool over Peter. It’s all good.”

Still, he paced for a few more minutes, before settling down on his bed and grabbing the book off his nightstand. He scooted so he was leaning against the headboard and opened _Strange Practice_ , sliding the bookmark out of its place and setting it on the nightstand.

Harley was engrossed in his book when someone knocked at the door. “Come in!” he hollered, marking his place and setting his book aside. “Hey, Nebula.”

“Hello, Harley.” She sat on the edge of his bed after he gestured for her to sit. “May I ask a personal question?”

“Yeah, sure. Anything you want to know.”

“I know Peter’s parents and uncle died. But why do you only have a mother and no father? What happened to him?”

He thought about brushing it off in much the same way he had for Tony when he was little. That his dad must’ve won the lottery and that’s why he left. But something about the way Nebula looked, as if she were nervous because the answer meant more to her than she thought it should, made him want to answer completely honestly. “He left us one day. He said he was going to the store and he never came back. One of our neighbors said they saw him driving out of town. A few months later, my mom got divorce papers in the mail. He’d already signed them and signed away any parental rights he had to me or Abbie. I don’t remember much about him and what I do, isn’t good. Mom’s told me a little, so I know more than I used to.

“He used to drink a lot. Like, if he was awake, odds were he had a beer in his hand. Because he was always drunk, he couldn’t keep a job. But he decided that it was my mom’s fault he couldn’t keep a job. She worked at a diner just outside town and made pretty good tip money ‘cause it was right by the highway. But he decided that she was somehow keeping him from getting a job. So, when he was drunk, he’d yell and scream at her a lot. About a year before he left, he started to hit her. I don’t remember this, but the night before he left, he was yelling at my mom and I stepped in between them and yelled at him to shut up and quit being a bully. Mom said he backhanded me, and I fell into the kitchen cabinets and hit the floor.”

Harley was quiet for a moment. “He left the next night. Later, Mom told me she was done making excuses for him and told him that if he didn’t leave, she was gonna call the cops and have him arrested for hitting us. I had a really bad bruise on the left side of my face from his hand and another on the right side of my ribs from the cabinet.” He sighed, remembering the pain of trying to breathe with bruised ribs. “I never knew why he lied about the store thing. I never knew why he told me anything. Like, did he want me to be afraid that he was coming back? Did he want to give some kind of excuse for why he was leaving? Anyway, that’s why I only have a mom. Why, Nebula?”

She was quiet for a moment, smoothing her hand over his comforter. “I am trying to understand the way I feel about Tony. I know he is important to me. I know if he had died on that battlefield, something inside of me would have died too,” she was quiet again for a few seconds then turned to Harley and explained her relationship with her father.

“I told you and Peter that Thanos raised me as his daughter and his lieutenant. There is, as you know, more to the story than that. I am one of six children Thanos raised. He was obsessed with killing half of the population of all worlds, for what he believed to be the betterment of those who remained. He believed doing so would allow the remaining population to thrive. Before he found the Infinity Stones, he would do that the most obvious way. He would invade a planet and use his army to kill half the world’s population. Each of his children was chosen by him during an invasion. Gamora, my sister, is the only one I may have grown to like.

“He raised the six of us to be in constant competition with each other. My cybernetic enhancements are not normal for my species. He would pit Gamora and I against each other in fights and, every time I lost, he would enhance me to try to make me her equal. She was always better.”

They were both quiet a minute. “That sounds awful, Nebula. I’m sorry you had to go through that.” Harley reached out to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. After a few seconds, she put her hand over his.

“You do understand that he is the reason you blipped out of existence for 5 years?”

“I know. But that’s not your fault. He made his decision and forced you to try to be like him.”

“Tony would never try to make any of us think like him. He would never hit us or make us fight each other.”

“No, Nebula, he wouldn’t.” Harley moved so he was sitting cross-legged beside her.

“You and Peter have started to call him dad.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because he is our dad. A dad, a real dad, is someone who is always there for you, even when you didn’t know you needed him. He’s someone who supports your choices and loves you unconditionally. He never tries to change who you are but supports your decisions to change yourself. He gives advice when you ask for it or need it to help you instead of to help himself. And, if you decide to do or be something he doesn’t understand, he’ll still love you but he’ll ask questions, so he understands better.

“Tony is the best kind of dad. I think because he didn’t try too hard to be a dad. He just loves us,” Harley shrugged.

“Is that what this is Harley? This feeling that I get around Tony where I relax and I do not feel like I have to be the best version of myself.”

“Yeah, Nebula. That’s you responding to Tony’s love for you. You know you don’t have to impress him because he loves you either way.”

“Thank you. I understand now.” Nebula stood from Harley’s bed and strode out of the room. Harley jumped up and followed her, insanely curious as to what she’d apparently decided to do.

She went to the living room where the adults had apparently taken over the tv and Tony was part of the crowd watching Sam, Wanda, Natasha, and Clint play Mario Cart. “Hey guys, what’s up?” he turned as he saw them approaching. Nebula barely slowed as she approached him. She walked right up to him and wrapped her arms around him the way she saw Peter and Harley do it. “Everything okay, Nebula?” His arms automatically wrapped around her, holding her close.

“I understand things better now. May I call you ‘dad’?”

He tightened his arms around her, “Of course you can.”

~~~~~~~

The next night, Tony decided they would have a family game night. He remembered what Pepper had told him about the kids playing board games while he’d been unconscious and had decided it would be a fun, non-technology way to hang out with his kids. He, Pepper and Morgan, Harley, Peter, and Nebula were sitting around the living room coffee table playing Clue when a shout from down the hallway distracted them.

“HARLEY JAMES KEENER!” Harley dropped his game piece and looked toward the living room door. Loki came through the door first, with a huge grin on his face aimed at Harley. “WHAT DID YOU DO?” Abbie stepped through the doorway, her skin and hair a nice neon green.

“Hey, Abbie. Is this a new fashion fad I’m unaware of?” He was aware of Tony, Peter, and Morgan giggling behind him. Well, Morgan was giggling, the other two were trying not to.

“Don’t play dumb, it’s not a good look for you. What did you do and how long will it last?”

“What makes you think it was me, Abs? What reason could I _possibly_ have to do something like this?” He cocked his head to one side. The longer she stood there while the dye was drying, the darker the color became. She probably wasn’t aware of that yet, and he wasn’t going to tell her.

“Harley!” She fisted her hands on her hips, demanding he answer her original questions. When he just smiled, she leaned out of the doorway. “MOM!”

“What? Oh, Abbie, what happened?” April came around the corner.

“Your son happened.”

“Ah,” she smoothed her hands over her daughter’s hair. “You were talking about wanting to get your hair dyed, dear.”

“Yeah, _just_ my hair. And not neon green! And why are you on his side?!”

“Maybe you should stop rubbing it in his face that you’re, legally, older than he is now,” she suggested. Harley could see her jaw tightening in the back from trying not to laugh. He’d always been thankful that his mother was more than willing to let sibling pranks slide as long as no one got hurt.

“UGH!” Abbie threw up her hands and stormed back to her room.

“It’ll fade, right?” April asked as soon as everyone’s laughter died down.

“It should,” he shrugged. “It’s only body paint. And hey, if it doesn’t, there are worse colors to be dyed,” he grinned as he turned his attention back to the game.

Of course, everyone in the Tower knew about Harley’s prank within an hour. There were mixed feelings about it. Mostly everyone thought it was funny, but there were a few who were sympathetic to Abbie.

A few nights later, Peter was swinging through Queens as usual. It was another quiet night but he liked being Spider-Man. Apparently, Queens was happy to have him back as well. Since he’d started swinging around again, there had been signs in people’s windows and graffiti welcoming him back and saying they were glad to see him again.

_“Peter, there is a bank robbery in progress three blocks to your left,”_ Karen informed him.

“Thanks, Karen,” with a quick flick of his wrist, Peter changed direction and headed to the Capital One three blocks away. He landed on the side of the building and climbed down to the ground floor where he could see movement, despite the interior of the building still being dark. He counted only two men inside. He dropped down in front of the open doorway. “Seriously guys? Couldn’t you find a better way to spend a Thursday night? I’m missing game night for this.”

The third guy that he hadn’t seen in the running getaway van, turned the headlights on, momentarily disorienting him as he compensated for the sudden flood of light. The criminal in question stepped on the gas, flinging him into the alley. The other two, deciding this was the only break they were gonna get, flung themselves into the van and they sped off.

Peter, meanwhile, looked down at his abdomen where a piece of rebar from the alley was sticking through him. “Okay, it’s fine. I’ve had worse. Karen, anything major damaged?” He noted that the rebar was only sticking through the very edge of his abdomen, as in there was less than 1/2 an inch of flesh on the outer edge of the wound.

_“The rebar has not punctured any organs, but the tissue damage is bad, Peter._ ”

“I know it’s bad, but I think I can swing home. Right?”

_“I would not advise that. Should I alert Tony?”_

“No, not yet. Besides, Dad doesn’t have a suit anymore. I’ll just web it so it doesn’t move, then swing straight to the infirmary.” As he spoke, he webbed the front side of the wound and tried webbing the back as best as he could. “And anyway,” he said to Karen as he shot webs at the building across the street and started making his way home. “By the time anyone got to me, decided to take me to the infirmary, and actually got me there, I could be there and under Dr. Cho’s care if I take myself.” Dr. Cho had not blipped and was once again back at her job, working to heal the Avengers when needed. Frankly, she hadn’t been needed much since everyone came back as there hadn’t been any Avenging going on.

He knew, on the first turn, that he hadn’t webbed the back side very well. He could feel the blood running down his back and leg. As he got closer to the Tower, he started to get dizzy from blood loss. As soon as he was in sight of the building, he spoke to Karen again. “Karen, give FRIDAY my vitals and injury report. And ask her to open an infirmary window. Tell Dad and Aunt May. Call Dr. Cho. I’ll be in the infirmary.” He saw a window in the infirmary open as he finished speaking and, thanking both A.I.s, launched himself through it.

He pulled off his mask and tapped the spider on his chest, causing the fabric to puff out so he could take it off. Which of course, caused his suit to get stuck on the webbing and rebar. Leaving it the way it was, he stumbled to and sat on a bed facing the doorway and waited. Within seconds, Tony, May, Nebula, Harley, and Dr. Cho rushed into the room.

“Lecture later,” Cho told May and Tony. “Healing now. Nebula, I could use your assistance.”

“Of course. What do you need?”

Cho started gathering supplies. “When I tell you to, I’m going to help him brace and you’re going to pull that rebar out of his side,” she started stacking gauze and medical tape on the bed next to Peter. “You’re stronger than I am, so it’ll go faster and he’ll lose less blood. This is gonna sting, Pete.” She sprayed the web dissolving spray against the webbing on his back and then again on his front. Peter hissed in pain, squeezing the frame of the bed hard enough to bend it. She placed a stack of gauze at his back and held one against the end of the rebar at his front. “Ok, you’re going to pull the rebar out through his back because this is the shorter side. As soon as it’s free of his body, press the stack of gauze against his wound as tightly as possible, okay?”

“Understood.” Nebula took hold of the rebar, being careful not to jostle him much, grabbed the stack of gauze, and looked up at Cho. At the doctor’s nod, she swiftly pulled the metal out of his body and pressed the gauze to the bleeding wound.

“Perfectly done, thank you Nebula. Peter, hold this stack tight against your skin.” She moved away, grabbing a hypodermic needle and one of the bags of blood Peter had donated himself for just this purpose. She set everything up and efficiently slid the needle into the crook of his elbow. She then gathered her thread, needle, and antiseptic. “May as well explain yourself now, Pete. Might be the only chance you have.”

“Bank robbery. One guy was in the van and I didn’t see him.” Dr. Cho started stitching the wound on his front shut. They all knew that he’d only need superficial stitches – his healing factor would take care of the internal damage quickly enough once the skin was closed and he wasn’t losing so much blood. “He caught me off guard with his headlights, took advantage of the momentary distraction, and rammed me with his car. They got away. Karen said the rebar hadn’t damaged any organs so I figured it would be faster to web the rebar so it didn’t move around and swing myself here rather than call someone, wait for them to come get me, and then have them drive me back here.”

“Rhodey has a suit,” Tony commented.

Peter opened his mouth to respond and closed it again, grimacing. “I forgot about Rhodey.”

May sighed and sat beside him. “Overall, not the worse decision you’ve made regarding your injuries.”

“Hm, one of the better ones, really,” Tony agreed. Dr. Cho finished stitching him up and wrapped gauze all the way around his abdomen.

“Seriously?” Harley finally spoke. “ _This_ was a good decision?”

“Mm-hm. He used to not tell anyone at all when he was injured. Used his accelerated healing as an excuse,” May explained. “Still, remember that it’s not just Tony who could come get you. Rhodey has a suit, so does Pepper. If Carol’s here, she can fly. So can Thor. Strange can open portals. There are a lot of options here, Peter.”

“Right. Um, we should probably program Karen for that then. ‘Cause she only mentioned telling Dad and I didn’t remember the others. But if _Karen_ remembers them, I won’t have to.”

“Not tonight. Tonight, you’re going to come upstairs as soon as Helen releases you, so you can tell Morgan you’re okay. And then you’re going to get some rest,” Tony instructed.

A short while later, Harley stood off to the side and watched Peter cuddle Morgan. He did everything in his power to reason with himself that the reason he had been so worried when FRIDAY announced that Peter’d been injured was because they were like family. When that didn’t work, he tried to reason that he was worried on Morgan’s behalf, who’d burst into tears as soon as she heard that her brother was hurt. He grasped at the reason, desperate for it to be true. He couldn’t have a crush on someone who was supposed to be like family. He just couldn’t. Despite the _helpful_ part of his brain pointing out that just because they thought of Tony, Morgan, and Nebula as family didn’t mean the two of them had to be family. After all, plenty of best friends thought of each other’s families as family and still ended up together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Peter has friendships outside of the Avengers and his family and I decided Harley needed at least one. Happy Monday everyone!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter of 'It's Flickering', you'll find Spider-Man suit upgrades, non-binary Loki, cross-dressing Harley, dancer!Peter, a bodega robbery, and a glittery prank. Enjoy!

After breakfast the next morning, Peter and Harley made their way to the lab together. Nebula had been called off-planet that morning by Captain Danvers for what she promised would only be a few days, a week at most. Tony was with Morgan, trying to distract her from missing her sister. The boys decided they would update Karen and repair the Spider-Man suit.

Since working together on Tony’s arms, the two boys had developed a bit of a rhythm together in the lab that adapted as needed depending on who else was there. Together, they started by assessing the physical damage to the Spider-Man suit then checking in with Karen to ensure that there was nothing wrong with her coding. By mutual agreement, the two of them split off – Harley worked on repairing the suit and Peter started adding to the part of Karen’s code that alerted Tony when he was injured. They could both work on both parts, but they’d learned that Harley preferred the manual labor and Peter preferred to code when they were working together.

They’d talked about it at breakfast and Rhodey, Pepper, Captain Danvers, Thor, and Dr. Strange had all agreed that they could be added to Karen’s protocol. After a brief discussion, they’d also agreed that Stephan should be the first call. Being able to open portals and a medical doctor, he made the most sense. Updating Karen’s coding took only a few minutes. The protocol already existed, all he really had to do was plug in the new contact information and make Stephan the priority call. He glanced over to Harley and, deciding he had the repairs fully under control, started making more web fluid.

Meanwhile, Harley was doing his absolute best to focus on the task at hand. After seeing Peter shirtless and sweaty, he’d had difficulty not staring at him. He supposed that, with all the excitement, he’d never really gotten a good look at the other boy. At least, not without something else to occupy his thoughts. Now though, he wasn’t worried about Tony or his mom and sister, or schoolwork, or helping to adjust to life five years in the future. Now, he found himself unable to get enough of watching Peter. He watched him during game nights, during meals, playing with Morgan, and had even gone down to the training room to watch him spar with Natasha and Steve.

And he could no longer deny that he only watched him because of how physically attractive he was. That was still a factor, Harley knew there was no sense in denying it to himself. But now he knew who Peter was, he knew why a teen who had found himself with extraordinary abilities had decided he wanted to use them to protect his part of the city rather than anything else he could’ve done. Peter was kind, genuinely caring, and nobody’s pushover. He was unapologetically himself and there was something about that that called out to Harley.

He worried about his own feelings a lot. Harley was concerned that he was idealizing Peter and that’s why he was falling in love with him. He was concerned that he’d put Peter up on a ridiculously high pedestal and that, if he ever got up the courage to tell the other boy how he felt and they started dating, that Peter wouldn’t be able to live up to the ridiculously high standards he’d made in his head. But he wasn’t sure how to stop. He wasn’t sure if he was able to stop idealizing the other boy, even if he found a way. It sounded ridiculous in his head, but Peter radiated a kind of sunshine-happiness that infected everyone in his general vicinity.

He finished repairing the hole in the Spider-Man suit right about the same time that Peter finished mixing up more web fluid. To avoid any possibly-awkward silences, Harley said the first thing that came to mind. “Have you thought about upgrading the suit at all?”

“Upgrading how?” Peter wheeled over on his stool and sat opposite Harley. That was another thing, for Harley. Peter paid attention and really listened when other people talked. Not just people he knew or liked, but everyone. He remembered the cashier’s name at the bodega down the road and remembered stories the man had told them and asked after his family when they were there.

“Well, um, we still have some of the vibranium that King T’Challa sent for Dad’s arms. And I know you prefer wearing this suit instead of the Iron Spider suit. And I remember someone saying that the Wakandans can weave vibranium into fabric. So I was thinking that you’d probably get impaled way less if we were able to weave the vibranium into a suit for you.”

“That’s brilliant! I’ll message Shuri and see if she’s able-slash-willing to tell me how to do it. You’ll help if she tells me, right?”

“Yeah, if you want me to.”

“Awesome,” with a grin, Peter rolled over to the computer and typed out a quick message to Shuri. “It might take a few days, of course, but hopefully she’ll get back to us soon.”

It took three days for Shuri to get back to them. She’d had to get permission from her brother. T’Challa had called Tony, asking why it was Peter asking about how weave vibranium into fabric and not him or Steve or one of the other adults. Which prompted Tony to send him all the information he had on Peter’s injuries while wearing the suit, including his most recent impalement. And then, of course, Shuri had had to translate everything into English.

Peter and Harley were in the living room with their StarkPads, studying the instructions Shuri had sent over. Thor was sitting on the couch opposite them with Lila and Connor, explaining Asgardian space travel to the pair of them. Clint was sitting in an armchair nearby, pretending not to listen to Thor’s explanation by watching Scott, Abbie, Morgan, Nate, and Natasha who were all around the coffee table, putting together a large puzzle. At the sound of heels clicking on the wood floors, they all expected Pepper to walk in and call them to dinner, so they started shifting around, starting to clean up a little before leaving the room for dinner.

Instead, they were greeted by Loki, stopping in the archway when he realized everyone was staring at him. Abbie, Morgan, Nate, Scott, and Natasha went back to their puzzle. Connor turned to ask Thor another question. Peter went back to the schematics on his StarkPad. Only Clint and Harley were still paying attention to Loki, though Harley was much subtler about it, watching the god from the corner of his eye.

“Is wearing a dress common for men on Asgard?” Clint asked in just enough of a neutral tone that no one could tell if he was criticizing Loki or genuinely curious.

“No one said Loki was a man, Dad,” Lila started. Loki started to open his mouth to defend himself with a scathing comment when she continued. “He could be, obviously. But he could also be genderfluid or nonbinary.”

“Besides, there’s nothing wrong with a guy wearing dresses if he wants to,” Scott added.

“Although,” Abbie looked up from the puzzle she was building with Morgan. “Lila did raise a good question. Just so we don’t get this wrong in future, what are your pronouns, Loki?”

“I don’t understand, what other pronouns?” Thor asked.

“Do you not have different pronouns on Asgard?”

“Not really,” Loki explained, sitting on the couch. “There are only a few of us who are shapeshifters and anyone that is a different gender then assigned at birth, even if they’re not a shapeshifter, lives their life as whichever gender they actually are. We only have male and female pronouns. Though we do have people who switch between the two, myself included.”

“So you guys don’t use a singular ‘they’ then?” Abbie asked. When Loki only raised an eyebrow at her, she explained. “It’s typically used for groups of people no matter the gender makeup of that group, but there is also the singular ‘they-slash-them’ for people who do not identify as male or female and do not wish to use male or female pronouns. There are others, but I don’t remember them off the top of my head.” Loki and Abbie were both quiet for a minute while he absorbed that information. “So, which pronouns would you prefer we use to identify you?”

“I’ve mostly gone by male pronouns, sometimes switching to female. But I think I like the singular ‘they’. I’ve never used that one before. However, I am ok with whatever pronouns you want to use.”

The next morning, right after breakfast, Peter and Harley headed to the lab and the large amount of vibranium and assorted necessary tools Shuri had sent them. After reading the instructions as well as her advice, they’d agreed that it would be easier to add the vibranium to his existing suit rather than to make an entirely new one with it. They stood together over the basin of liquid metal and reviewed Shuri’s directions again.

To someone who had spun yarn before, the process of turning a metal into thin strands of metal, wouldn’t look that different than turning roving fiber into a single of yarn. The materials were obviously different, but the process looked similar and so did the tools. Harley held the end of a vibranium hook that had a stick on the end that then attached to what anyone who had ever seen Sleeping Beauty would recognize as a spinning wheel. Shuri’s instructions told them to very quickly dip the hook into the liquid vibranium and then manually spin the hook until the liquid started to wrap around itself into a thin strand. If it wasn’t thin enough, all they had to do was shake off the hook into the basin, dropping the metal back in, and try again. The quicker you dipped the hook, the thinner the strand of metal would be. Once the strand came up thin enough, the rod and hook were attached to the spinning wheel and from there, the process was easier than spinning yarn because you didn’t have to constantly stretch out the metal the way someone spinning yarn had to stretch roving.

Harley and Peter took turns manning the spinning wheel. After the first couple of hours or so, the process of spinning became repetitive enough that the excitement of spinning metal had mostly worn off. They spent the majority of the rest of the day spinning the metal and part of the next morning as well. Then it was finally time to add the strands to the Spider-Man suit. Deciding to go with the design of the suit, they wove the strands along the black lines of the spider web. They then re-enforced the areas most vulnerable to damage. Finally, they followed Shuri’s instructions on how to get Karen’s operating system and all of the attached systems, to use the vibranium as a kind of battery source. It wasn’t like the Black Panther suit that was made entirely of vibranium, but there was enough vibranium that the kinetic energy of Peter’s movements could be used as a power source.

After a total of three days of near-constant work, Peter and Harley collapsed on the couch beside each other to admire their work. They sat leaning against each other and quietly stared at the suit. Peter was excited to get out and try it, but part of him was as excited to sit quietly beside Harley. There weren’t many quiet moments in a place that housed so many superheroes and it was nice to just be still and quiet with Harley. If he let himself daydream, he could imagine them doing just this as a couple. Sitting and watching a movie maybe. And, in his daydreams, he’d be able to lean over more and rest his head on Harley’s shoulder, who would welcome the cuddling and wrap his arm around Peter, tugging him closer. He cleared his throat and moved away before he could think about where those daydreams usually ended up.

“Ready to test it out?” Harley asked. Peter, with his back to the other boy, missed the brief look of disappointment on his face.

“Definitely. Where do you think…?”

“Neb’s home!” Morgan came running into the lab. “Her and Carol just got here. Come on! We’re having a party!” She grabbed both of their hands and started tugging them out of the lab and upstairs. “’Sides, you guys have been in the lab for _ages_ and I want to play with you.”

It wasn’t a very big party, but someone did go to the store and get a cake that said ‘Welcome Home’. Someone else ordered enough pizza for everyone and one particular someone – Morgan – insisted that Nebula wear the birthday crown Morgan had worn at her 5th birthday party. Since it was very much a spur of the moment party, those that lived at the Tower or were currently staying there didn’t announce it to everyone.

Tony, Pepper, Morgan, Harley, Peter, May, Happy, Abbie, April, Thor, Loki, Steve, Bucky, Sam, Rhodey, Nebula, and Carol gathered around the long dining table and helped themselves to pizza first. Nebula and Carol recounted their adventure to anyone who wanted to listen. Nebula also answered every space-related question Morgan had, sometimes with an assist from either Carol or Thor. Harley and Peter told everyone about the upgrade to the Spider-Man suit and how that would help keep him safer, but that they hadn’t gotten to test it yet. They also explained how his suit would be basically self-sustaining as far as Karen and associated systems were concerned.

After everyone started drifting away from the table with their plates of cake, Harley looked over and saw Loki sitting off to the side, an inscrutable look on their face. He wandered over and sat on the couch beside them. “Everything ok?”

“I’m sure _everything_ is not okay. However, yes, I am. Why do you ask?”

He shrugged a little, “The look on your face. You look like you don’t want to be here or something.”

“Mm – that’s not quite it,” Loki turned to look at him and after a moment, decided to share his thoughts. “We used to have parties on Asgard after a battle. Thor, being not only the Crown Prince but also the army Commander for many battles, was always the center of attention. And he…. I believe the correct expression is ‘Lorded it over everyone’.” Harley shot a disbelieving look at Thor, who was currently helping serve cake. “Yes,” Loki smiled a little. “He has changed quite a bit since then. My point is, those parties were often about the returning warriors. In this case, that would be Nebula and Captain Danvers. So this is different for me. This is a celebration of their victory, yes, but it is also a celebration of being together again. Which is, I think, what Morgan intended. She didn’t care that her sister had won a battle, she cared that her sister was home.”

They sighed and were quiet for a moment. “It is different than what I’m used to and I find I like this better. Though it is simpler than parties on Asgard, it is also… happier I think.”

“It sounds happier. Which is why you should be a part of it, instead of just _watching_. C’mon,” Harley grabbed their hand and tugged them into the living room. Once there, he stared at the various gaming systems and ultimately decided on playing Mario Kart.

“What is this?”

“Mario Kart, a racing game. Here, I’ll teach you.” Loki caught on quickly and Harley moved to more difficult tracks. Hearing the sounds of the video game, most people started filtering in. Nebula took up a controller on Loki’s other side, and Thor stood beside Harley. Harley backed down to an easier track to teach Thor the basics and, once he caught on, they played for real. Nebula, who had lived with Tony for 5 years, did not need instructions.

They rotated players out, usually after two races. Those not racing, cheered on or good-naturedly cat-called the racers. After a few rounds, Harley sought out Loki again, who was yelling at Steve as he kept hitting walls. He stood quietly beside the god and waited for them to stop yelling.

“You were right. It is more fun to be a part of the party, rather than an observer.”

“I knew I was right about that. I just wanted to make sure you actually had fun playing the game too, not just yelling at the current players.”

Loki grinned. “I find them to be equally enjoyable,” they said in as haughty of a manner as possible. Harley laughed, as they’d meant him to.

A week after Loki came out wearing their dress and decided on their pronouns, Harley stood alone in his bedroom. He smoothed his hands down the skirt he was wearing, biting his lip as he looked at himself in his mirror. He’d always wanted to own his own skirt. He’d worn one of his mother’s one time but had not felt comfortable enough to wear it outside of the laundry room where it had been hanging to dry. Rose Hill wasn’t exactly a hotbed of acceptance, after all. It hadn’t been a very comfortable skirt anyway – it had been part of her work uniform.

This skirt, however. This one he had searched for online, painstakingly trying to decide which one he wanted out of all of the choices he’d suddenly found for himself. He had a couple others, still in their packages on the bed behind him, but this one was his favorite. It was a multi-layered, sapphire blue with what the website called a handkerchief hemline around his knees. It was light and floated around his knees when he moved. He stood there, in front of his mirror, rocking and twisting in place just to enjoy the movement of the skirt against his bare legs. He decided he was right to shave his legs, even though it was a pain in the ass, because he liked the feel of the fabric against his skin.

“Hey, Harley? I was….”

“Peter! Knock, damn it!” Harley spun around, furious that he’d been interrupted. He wasn’t totally sure he wanted anyone to know about his skirts yet.

“Wait, do that again.” Peter’s eyes were glued to the skirt and he spoke in a low enough voice that Harley wasn’t sure he’d heard right.

“What?”

“That spin. Have you spun in that skirt yet?”

“No.” Confused, he did as Peter suggested. “Oh.” If he’d enjoyed the movement of the skirt before, that was nothing compared to the flare when he spun around.

Peter shook himself. _Focus, dude. You’ve already made this awkward._ “I’m sorry, Harley. I didn’t mean to barge in like this. I… um – I was headed out to get Thai and wanted to know if you wanted to come with me.”

“You were?”

“Well, still am. But yeah, that’s what I came in here for.”

“You don’t seem too upset about finding me in a skirt.”

“I’m not! It – um, it looks good on you.”

“You think so? I wasn’t sure…. I mean, I always wanted to try wearing skirts and dresses and then, with Loki the other day I thought, well why not try? So I went shopping online and I found a couple that I really like, but this one’s my favorite. I just – I don’t know how anyone’s gonna react. Like my mom, Abbie, or Dad. I mean, I told Nebula once that Dad would love us no matter what, and I still believe that, but like… I don’t…. I just don’t want him to think of me differently.” Finally running out of steam, Harley dropped to sit on his bed.

Peter walked over and sat beside him but far enough away that Harley wouldn’t feel crowded. “I won’t tell anyone if you don’t want me to. And I managed to keep Spider-Man a secret from Aunt May for almost a year so I can keep this secret too for as long as you need me to.”

“You did? How, you lived with her?”

“I snuck out the fire escape a lot. Or told her I was going to Ned’s.” They were quiet for a minute, studiously not looking at each other. Peter broke first, asking the first few questions that popped into his head in rapid succession. “So what’s your gender identity then? Did you just get skirts, or dresses too? What about blouses or girls’ shirts to wear with the skirts? How do you feel about high heels? Also, have you tried the others on yet or just that one?” He stopped when he noticed Harley just staring at him. “Sorry. I don’t mean to pry or be annoying, I’m just curious.”

“No, it’s…. Those are really your first questions?”

“Um, I’m pretty sure those are the only questions I have. At least, right now they are.”

“Okay. Um. I still identify as male. Just skirts for now. No, didn’t think of it. A little intimidated, but definitely interested. Just this one.”

“Okay. Well, uh, if you want, of course, I could, maybe, hang out for a little bit? And give my opinion about your other skirts? If you want! You can totally tell me to fuck off and I won’t be even a little upset about it.” Peter tried not to fidget while Harley thought about his offer. He was mostly successful. He tried not to think too much about _why_ he’d offered, which was quite simply because of how beautiful Harley looked in the first skirt. He was much less successful.

“Yeah, okay, you can stay. I only have two others. Wait here,” Harley snatched up the other two packages and headed into his bathroom. After a couple minutes, he came out wearing a black skirt that was snug against his waist then gradually flared out until it reached just below his knees. “Well?” He did a little spin, just to feel the skirt move, then stood still in front of Peter.

“I like it. It doesn’t move the same way as the other one, which was way more fun-looking, but I like it. It looks good, Harley.”

“Thanks, Pete,” he smiled and ducked back into his bathroom. He was still a little nervous, but he’d never known Peter to not give his honest opinion so that was helping. And, he admitted to himself, it was nice to know that Peter liked the way he looked. He pulled his last skirt, an ankle length, bright red one, up over his hips, and turned to look at himself in the mirror. He liked this one a little more than the black one, just for the comfort of it. He spun again when he came out of the bathroom and was a little disappointed that it didn’t flair the way the others did.

“No flair,” Peter commented. “But it looks super comfortable. And the color looks good on you too.”

Harley sat beside him on his bed. “Thanks for this, Pete. It’s nice to have someone else’s opinion.”

“Yeah, of course.” They were quiet for a minute, but it was a much more comfortable quiet than it had been earlier. “I used to dance ballet,” Peter commented.

“Huh?” Harley looked confused at the subject change.

“Well, I still do. I just don’t dance at the studio or in recitals anymore. Not since I got bit. I decided that with the physical increases, I couldn’t participate in any athletics anymore, and that included ballet. But I still dance sometimes. On the roof of mine and May’s old apartment building. In my bedroom here. Probably I’ll use the training room too eventually.”

“Pete, not that I’m not interested in learning more about you, but why are you telling me this now?”

“Because the only other person who knows, is May.”

And Harley understood. His secret had been found out and, while he trusted Peter to keep it a secret, he understood that Peter was telling him this secret about himself as a sort of way to even it out between them – ‘I know one of yours, now you know one of mine’. It was unnecessary but Harley was delighted by the gesture anyway. And he really wanted to see Peter dance. “Will you show me sometime?”

“Sure. Wanna go now?”

“Later. Let me change back into my jeans and we’ll go get that Thai food.”

“Awesome. I’ll meet you in the living room,” Peter smiled and hurried out of Harley’s room. There weren’t many people in the living room once Peter got there – just Scott and Hope who seemed to be having a semi-serious conversation so he didn’t interrupt them. He leaned against the wall beside the elevator and typed out a quick text to Tony and May. He had them as a group message on his phone so he didn’t have to repeat himself.

He was nervous about dancing for Harley, it wasn’t something he had done in a long time. Even though May knew he had danced, she didn’t see him dance anymore. It wasn’t something he actively hid from her, but it wasn’t something he usually shared any more either. But with the nerves was excitement, he hadn’t gotten to perform for anyone in a few years and he missed performing sometimes. Nervously, he tapped his phone against his thigh. It’s not like Harley would ever judge him for dancing ballet. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly why he was nervous – if he was nervous just to perform for someone when he hadn’t done so in so long, or if he was nervous to perform for _Harley_.

Harley coming into view at the end of the hallway put a stop to his train of thought. He didn’t want the other boy to ask questions he wasn’t ready to answer yet. Together, they left the Tower and headed down to the Thai restaurant a couple blocks away. As usual, Harley let Peter order for him. Though he’d adjusted to city life pretty easily, he still wasn’t comfortable ordering things that he wasn’t sure he was pronouncing correctly. After lunch, they made their way back to the Tower and to Peter’s room.

“Is ballet the reason you have your room set up like this?” Harley asked. Whereas in his own room, the furniture was spread out and took up the whole room, in Peter’s bedroom, most of his furniture was confined to a section near the closet, leaving a large open space in front of the windows.

“Yeah. It gives me the most amount of space to dance. Be right back,” he hurried into his bathroom and came back out a couple minutes later, dressed in a pair of ballet slippers, sweatpants, and a tank top. He walked over to his laptop and queued up the music he needed. “So this is from Act 1 of Swan Lake. “

Peter picked up the remote that went to his stereo system and turned on the music for the first male variation of Swan Lake. Harley watched with rapt attention as Peter jumped and spun around the space in his room. It wasn’t a long performance, the variation only being about a minute and a half in the ballet. But it helped Harley understand why Peter had chosen to not continue dancing. He wasn’t completely sure, having never seen an actual ballet, but he was pretty sure that most ballet dancers didn’t jump as high as Peter did. Watching him dance also helped him understand some of the ways that Spider-Man moved, especially when he was swinging. It certainly helped him understand where the confidence in his movements came from.

Harley and Peter didn’t really talk about the secret they’d each shared after that. Mostly because there were often other people around. But Harley did send shopping links to Pete occasionally, asking his opinion on how a certain skirt looked. And Peter let Harley know when he was going to practice dancing, in case he wanted to come over. Then, one afternoon about two weeks later, Peter was sitting in his own room, propped against his headboard, in the middle of a YouTube spiral when his phone rang.

“Harley?” He answered. “I thought you went to –“

“I did. I am. Robbery. Need Spider-Man,” he interrupted in a whisper.

“Stay there. I’m on my way,” Peter jumped up and reached for his suit. “FRIDAY, open a living room window,” he said as he ran out of his room, pulling on his mask.

“Pete? What’s -”

“Robbery, Harley, gotta go!” he jumped out of the window, free-falling for a few seconds before flinging a web to catch himself and swinging to Harley’s location. Thankfully, he hadn’t gone far. He landed on the side of the building and crawled down to the open door. One of the masked men was standing in the doorway with his back to the street and Peter kicked him into the building then webbed him to the floor. He used what was left of his element of surprise to quickly web the other two, one to the counter and the other to the drink cooler. “Huh. That went faster than I thought it would.”

” _Peter, the police have arrived.”_ Karen informed him.

He walked to the still-open door and waved at the four officers getting out of their cars. The four officers relaxed and strolled into the building. “Hey, Spidey. Good to have you back, man,” one of the cops said with a smile, clapping him on the shoulder.

“How’d you hear about this? I thought you operated in Queens?” One of the others asked.

“Usually. One of Mr. Stark’s kids is here, he called me. Actually,” he turned back around. “Harley?”

“I’m here, Spider-Man,” Harley stepped out from where he’d been hiding at the end of one of the isles.

“Didn’t realize Stark had more kids than just the little girl.” The cop who’d asked what he was doing there commented.

“Legally, he doesn’t. I’m sort of an adopted kid? I don’t know, it’s complicated.” Peter gave a quick statement and had the footage from his suit sent to the nearest officer’s cellphone.

As soon as Harley was done giving his statement and told he could leave, Peter followed him out to the sidewalk. “Come on, I’ll swing you back to the Tower.”

“Seriously? You don’t have to.”

“Abbie was in the living room when I left. Everyone knows by now. Sooner you get back, the better.”

“Good point. How do I…?”

“Wrap your arms around me and hold on tight. I’m gonna wrap one around you,” Pete lifted Harley slightly off the ground so he could get a running start and flung a web at the nearest building. The whole way back to the Tower, Harley focused on not hyperventilating. He knew how muscular Peter was, he’d seen it. But there was a difference in seeing, and feeling the ease with which he carried him and the play of muscles under the suit. Peter, meanwhile, kept his mind focused on the task at hand – getting them both safely back to the Tower. He did everything in his power to not think about his arm around Harley or Harley’s arms around him.

The window to the living room was still open and Peter flung himself and Harley through it, landing as gently as possible. He let go of Harley, who was immediately scooped up by his mom while Abbie and Morgan waited for their turns.

“Good job, kid,” Tony ruffled Pete’s hair when he pulled off the mask. Nebula stood beside him and reached out to squeeze his shoulder once. She was still most affectionate with Morgan, but she did show her affection for the rest of her family with small, casual touches.

“Thanks, Dad.”

April handed her son over to his two sisters and turned to Peter. “How did you know he was in danger?” she asked, hugging him close.

“He called me, said he needed Spider-Man. Actually, I’ve got an idea for something. I’ll be in the lab.” Still in his suit, he hurried down to the lab and to the computers there. He could probably do it on his own laptop, but the computers in the lab were designed for coding like this so it made more sense.

After a while, Peter wasn’t really sure how long, Harley joined him in the lab. “Mom said you had an idea and ran off right after she hugged you,” he said, sitting on one of the stools and wheeling over to where he was standing at one of the computers.

“Yeah. For a phone app. You, Abbie, your mom, Aunt May, Clint’s family, I’m gonna put it on all your phones. See, it occurred to me that you might not have been able to call me, or that they could have heard you and then you’d be in more immediate danger. So, I’m making an app that will activate from the lock screen. It’ll send an alert to my phone, Karen, and FRIDAY – just in case. It’ll also send your coordinates straight to Karen and FRIDAY.” Peter’s fingers stilled on the keyboard, but he didn’t turn away from the screen.

“You could’ve… I mean, if they had heard you, they could’ve decided to shoot you, Harley.”

Harley stood up and rested his chin on Peter’s shoulder, resting his hands on the tabletop on either side of Peter. “I know it doesn’t help because it’s already happened, but I made sure I was as far from them and as quiet as I could possibly be.” Peter could feel the rumble of Harley’s voice in his chest. “But you’re right, this is a safer way to do it.” Peter started shaking a little where he stood. “Pete, what’s wrong?”

“I’m ok. I was fine while it was happening, adrenaline was too high for anything else. It’s just, now it’s over. You could’ve been _shot_ , Harley.”

With minimal prodding, Harley turned Peter around so he could properly hug him. Peter clung to Harley, as tightly as he dared. “I’m okay. You got to me. They didn’t hear me call you. I’m okay,” he murmured, over and over to help calm Peter down. As his shaking subsided, they stayed together for a minute longer, neither quite ready to let the other go. Finally, Harley stepped back. He pulled his phone out and set it beside the keyboard. “We’ll test it once you finish it, if you want. Or we can wait and do that tomorrow. Whichever,” he shrugged as he sat back down on the stool.

They tested the app with Rhodey’s help. In the War Machine suit, he flew to various places all over New York, stepped out of the suit so they knew it was the app’s GPS signal and not the suit’s, activated the app on Harley’s phone, and waited for Peter to call and tell him his exact coordinates. With Rhodey’s help, they were also able to determine the app’s range. Which was only 100 miles from wherever Peter happened to be. It wasn’t quite good enough for Peter yet – what if someone was taken out of the city or to the opposite side of the city – but it would do to start with.

That night, after dinner, Peter informed all of the Avengers about his app and what he wanted to do with it. They all agreed that it was a good idea to have Peter be the primary call on that app, being that he wasn’t technically an Avenger and that he was known to be a local hero rather than a national one. But they also agreed that there should be secondary calls for each person. After talking to the Avengers, Peter told their families about the app. After they all agreed, he uploaded the app onto each phone. For Morgan, even though no one let her go anywhere by herself, he and Harley had made her a necklace with a tracking system similar to the app in it. All she had to do was press the back of the necklace and it would alert Peter, then Nebula, then Pepper.

The morning after the robbery, Harley knocked on Loki’s bedroom door. “Enter.”

“Is that meant to sound dramatic?” Harley asked, pushing the door open. “Or is that just a happy coincidence?”

“A little bit of both. What’s in the bag?”

“Glitter,” he said, sitting down on the floor, grocery bag in front of him. “In a variety of colors.”

“Why glitter?”

“Because, all you have to do is get it on one person and it ends up sticking to everyone and everything.”

“I do like the way you think, Harley,” Loki grinned, sitting up from their reclining position. “Do you have a primary target in mind?”

“Mm-hm, and I think you’re gonna like it.”

Harley and Loki sat on bar stools at the kitchen counter where they had a clear view of the secondary elevator doors. This elevator only went between the top ten floors, where everyone’s rooms, common areas, gym, and personal labs were located. Though it looked like they were talking to each other, Harley was rambling about the technicalities of a car engine while Loki concentrated on the elevator and who was in it. Harley chuckled when he saw the god smirk and knew they were putting their plan into effect. A few moments later, the elevator dinged, and Tony stepped out, waving his arms around as multi-colored glitter swirled around him like a mini-tornado before settling on and around him on the ground.

“So, you’re telling me that it’s a series of controlled explosions that you’ve only had control of for about a century and a half? And you all feel comfortable traveling in these things?” Loki asked, trying not to make it obvious that he was watching Tony.

“I mean, ‘control’ might be a strong word. Mostly it works and doesn’t go wrong, but sometimes it does,” Harley shrugged, grinning. “It’s pretty much how we power everything with an engine.”

“That sounds ridiculously dangerous.”

“Daddy!” Morgan came running toward him, jumping into his arms. “How come you’re all glittery?”

“I don’t know, Maguna. Why don’t you ask your brother and Reindeer Games over there?” Tony set her down and, now covered in glitter, she ran over to Harley and Loki.

“How come Daddy’s covered in glitter? Also, how come he called you ‘Reindeer Games’? What does that mean? You don’t look like a reindeer.”

“Your father has always called me that, and never explained why though I suspect it is because of my helmet.”

“What helmet?”

Loki stood and Morgan watched with rapt attention as their clothes transformed into the typical leather clothes they wore in battle, including the gold, horned helmet. “This one,” they said, crouching down so Morgan could see it.

“That is so cool! Is it heavy?”

“It would be for you, yes. It would be for most any human, except your brother Peter and perhaps Steve.”

“Hey, Dad. What’s with the glitter? Oh, cool helmet, Loki!” Peter joined them. Huffing, Tony threw up his hands and strode out of the room, carrying glitter to the rest of the Tower and its inhabitants.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I absolutely adore cross-dresser!Harley and dancer!Peter so I had to include them in this fic. Also, starting on August 1st I'll also be participating in Parkner week. That won't affect the publishing of this story at all because this story is already completely written. But, should you like to check out more of my Parkner stories, there will be more starting on Saturday.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harley hanging out with Loki, Peter has a sensory overload episode, Harley asks Peter out, Avengers family brunch, and an Ironfam outing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter six already! I'm so thrilled you guys have stuck with the story this far. I'm glad you're still enjoying it. Finally, we're getting into more Parkner content in this story. Still plenty of Ironfam though. Just a quick timing thing - as of the end of chapter 5, it has been 6 weeks and 5 days since the battle with Thanos.

Over the next day or so, Tony (and everyone he came into contact with) managed to spread glitter to nearly every single room in the upper 10 floors of the Tower. Loki and Harley, thanks to Loki’s magic, did not have the same glittery problem as everyone else. Even when Morgan hugged them, they didn’t get glitter on them. Of course, this meant that everyone knew who was responsible for the glitter, not that there’d ever been any doubt.

Two evenings after covering everyone in glitter, Harley knocked on Loki’s door again. “Enter.” Harley walked in, carrying a shoe box. “Another idea already?”

“No, not for that. Besides, we should space them out more so people aren’t expecting it. This is something else I could use your help with though, if you don’t mind.” When they only raised an eyebrow, Harley explained. “Um, when you wear your dresses or skirts, you’re usually wearing heels too. I want to learn to walk in heels. The woman at the store said low heels like these were the best to start with,” he opened the box to reveal a pair of black, close-toed, low heels. “But I still don’t know how to walk in them and my mom never wears heels and neither does Abbie really. Plus, no one else knows I even _want_ to. Except Peter, but he can’t walk in heels either so –.”

“Harley, stop,” Loki held up a hand. “Yes, I will help you learn to walk in heels. Have you even put them on yet?”

“Only at the store. I can stand up pretty well in them, but I start to feel wobbly if I try to move.”

“Alright, sit down and put them on.” While he did that, they walked to their closet and got out a similar pair of heels – black and close-toed but with a higher heel. “So, we’ll start just practicing the motion of walking in heels. It’s the same as walking in flats, but the heel-to-toe action can be a cause for concern a little at first because it feels unstable or like you’re going to break the heel when you put your weight on it to step down.”

For the next hour, Loki taught Harley to walk in his new heels until he was comfortable enough walking from the carpet to wood floors of Loki’s room. Which included magically changing the texture of their bedroom floor to mimic other types of surfaces, like concrete or linoleum, so Harley could practice on more floor types. After a while, Loki declared they were done for the day. Harley sat on the edge of their bed and pulled his heels off, setting them back in their box.

“Thanks for this, Loki. I really do appreciate it.”

“Harley, when you came in here you said that only Peter knew you wanted to learn to walk in heels.” It wasn’t technically a question, but he knew what they were asking anyway.

“Yeah. I um…. After you came out in your dress and heels that first time, I thought more about it. When I was little, I tried wearing one of my mom’s work skirts which was uncomfortable but I still liked the feel of it. I never felt comfortable enough in my hometown to try wearing one for any length of time, let alone buy my own. Anyway, I decided to buy my own the day after you were wearing yours. Peter accidently found out about it and he was very helpful while I tried them all on and has been helping me shop for more online. He asked me then how I felt about wearing heels and I told him I was interested in it but a little intimidated. So yeah, he knows but doesn’t know I actually bought a pair.” Loki sat in his desk chair and stared at Harley for a few long seconds.

“Thank you for trusting me with this secret Harley,” they said solemnly.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” he shrugged, a little uncomfortable.

“Perhaps not to you, but it is for me. People don’t trust me. You may note I have a bit of a reputation for betraying people, particularly Thor. So, thank you for your trust.” They were both quiet for a few seconds while Loki took off their own heels and set them beside their desk. “If I may offer some advice not related to wearing heels?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“You should ask Peter out sooner rather than later.”

“I’m sorry, _what_?” If he’d been drinking anything, Harley would’ve choked on it then.

“You should ask Peter out sooner rather than later,” they repeated. “I was trained to be very observant, particularly in battle. Obviously, there’s no battle going on now but that training helps me be observant when there are a lot of people around. Add the time we’ve spent in each other’s company without a lot of people around and I’ve noticed your crush on him, Harley. You should ask him out. You don’t have to, but I think you should.”

Of course, for Harley, nothing was that simple. He’d grown up in a small southern town and, while his mom and sister had accepted him when he came out, he knew what it was to hide such a significant part of yourself and to worry about how others would accept you. He wasn’t really worried about anyone in the Tower, and they were the only ones who really mattered. What he was worried about was Peter and whether or not he was even attracted to guys. What if he wasn’t and he freaked out if Harley asked him out? He tried to reason with himself – Peter didn’t strike him as the kind of guy who would do ditch a friend over that and he did trust Loki – but it was hard to ignore the doubts in his own mind.

Over the next couple of days, Harley accidentally withdrew from Peter a little. He didn’t mean to, but he kept getting distracted by his own doubts and Loki’s encouraging words. Particularly when he was around Peter, which made it difficult to keep up with whatever conversation he and Peter were trying to have. Two days after his conversation with Loki, he was once again in the god’s bedroom. They’d grown close, quickly, and Harley felt comfortable enough to go to them with his problems.

He lay on his back by Loki’s footboard and told them his doubts for why he hadn’t asked Peter out yet. “It’s just that, the place I grew up in, was still very homophobic. I couldn’t look at another boy for too long without risking both of us getting beat up. My childhood best friend stopped talking to me when he found out. Actually, it was worse than that, he accused me of trying to get him to spend the night so that I could have sex with him. And then he told _everyone_. In a small town of people who already didn’t like me because they remembered my alcoholic father and thought I was gonna be like him or didn’t like me because they thought they were better than us for going to church, it was awful to have them hate me for something that was true, ya know?”

“They sound stupid,” they commented.

“Oh, they are. But for me, up until the time I was about 15, it hurt a lot.”

“What happened at 15?”

“I told Tony I’m gay,” he shrugged a shoulder. “He barely commented on it. It was an, ‘Oh that’s nice. Did I tell you about the new suit I’m making?’. Which, on the one hand was great, he wasn’t upset about it. On the other hand,…” he trailed off.

“You were hoping for more support?” they questioned.

“Yes! And I got it actually, just not in that conversation. A few days later, I got a package from him. He knows how much I like to read and sent me a book on famous historical gay people and a pride flag with a note that said he was proud of me and happy that I felt comfortable enough to come out to him,” he smiled at the memory of opening that package at his kitchen table.

“So, it’s mostly the response of your former best friend that makes you unwilling to ask Peter out? Do you think he’d react the same?”

“No I don’t. I don’t think he’d just ditch a friend like that. But, I’m nervous about facing rejection from him anyway. It wouldn’t be the same kind of rejection, obviously, but it would still be rejection. And that scares me. Mostly, I’d rather have nothing change than to face possible rejection from him, ya know?”

“I do understand. I think it would change for the better.”

“You do?” Harley propped himself up on his elbows to properly look at Loki where they were reclined against their headboard.

“Yes, I do. You don’t have to listen to me, of course. But I think you would be pleasantly surprised if you did ask him out.” Loki wanted to tell Harley about the longing looks he’d seen from Peter but that felt too much like giving away a secret Peter hadn’t trusted him with in the first place and he was trying not to fall into old habits. Like betraying people’s secrets.

Harley stared at them for a long moment. “Ok, I’m gonna do this. Hang on.” He pulled out his phone, not telling Loki what he was doing. He tapped around on it for a good five minutes before smiling and declaring he was done. “Ok, gotta find Peter. Thanks, Loki,” he hopped off the bed with a smile.

“You’re welcome and have fun with whatever you just decided to do.”

“Oh! I’m going to take him to see a ballet in two days,” Harley waved as he left Loki’s room. “FRIDAY, where’s Peter?”

“In his bedroom.”

“Thanks.” He headed down the hall, determined to ask Peter out without listening to the worries he had. “Hey Pete?” he knocked lightly and headed in, as was their custom.

Inside, the room was as dark as possible. There was still enough light from around the blinds that, once his eyes adjusted, Harley could see Peter pacing and tossing something that might have been his phone from hand to hand. He didn’t speak for a moment, trying to determine what was going on. He could hear Peter muttering but couldn’t make out the words until he started getting louder.

“Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!” he shouted in the direction of his windows, throwing his phone which thankfully landed on his bed. When it landed, the screen lit up and Peter cringed away from it.

“FRIDAY,” Harley whispered as quietly as possible. “Can you soundproof Peter’s bedroom?”

“Done,” her voice came back in just as low of a whisper.

Harley stayed still, in the corner of his bedroom until Peter’s agitated pacing started to slow down. “Can you tell me what’s wrong?” he whispered, slowly walking toward Peter. When he flinched back, Harley stopped moving.

“Enhanced senses. I can hear the cars, people, _everything_ happening outside and throughout the Tower,” Peter answered, his voice low but not quite a whisper, as he wrapped his arms around himself and squeezed his upper arms.

“Can I help or should I leave?” he kept his question short and quiet.

“Pressure helps,” he nodded to his own hands. “Yes, help,” he came over to his bed and laid down. Carefully Harley followed. “Hug and apply pressure please.”

Harley did as he was asked, managing to wrap both arms around Peter and hug him close. He stroked the smaller man’s back, applying firm pressure to the strokes. Slowly, Peter’s breathing started to slow and his constant twitching faded as he fell asleep. Harley, one arm falling asleep from being pinned under Peter, followed him to sleep.

The next morning, they woke up still curled together. Peter was curled into a ball, his head tucked under Harley’s chin and his forehead resting on Harley’s collar bone. Harley’s arms were still wrapped around him, though the one that had been pinned was only under his head now. When Peter started to move as he was waking up, it woke Harley up.

“Hey. Are you okay?” Harley whispered.

“Mm-hm. Thanks for helping me,” he rolled onto his back and stretched out.

“Will you tell me what that was?”

“After the spider bite, my senses became enhanced. It’s very helpful as Spider-Man of course, but it very occasionally causes a sensory overload episode like that. It’s mostly sound, like being able to hear what’s going on down on the street from way up here,” he rolled back on his side to face Harley. “What did you need when you came in, anyway?”

“Oh. I got tickets to a thing. I want you to come out with me.”

“Sure. When and what is this thing?” he grinned.

“It’s this Saturday and a surprise. Just make sure you dress up.”

A few minutes later, fully awake and in his own bedroom, Harley was gently beating his head against a wall. “ _That’s_ how you decide to ask him out? Tickets to a thing, Peter. Ugh.”

Dinners were always a big affair at the Tower. Whoever happened to be at the Tower, came to the meal. But, Saturday morning brunch was a bigger deal. They had decided that it would be brunch because, by the time some people woke up, it was closer to lunch time and others had been awake for hours and time differences only made that worse. But no matter what time it was, everyone who was able to come to the Tower, did. Which meant that T’Challa and Shuri, with various members of the Dora Milaje accompanying them, Stephan, Wong, Carol Danvers, and sometimes the Guardians and/or Brunnhilde and Heimdall were usually added to the Tower’s inhabitants for Saturday. Saturday brunch meant that Thor, Sam, Laura Barton, and Wanda spent the morning cooking together as they were the best cooks and the only ones willing to cook for that many people. Though they did dragoon anyone they thought they needed into service as assistants.

“Peter!” Wanda pulled him into the kitchen as he passed. Aside from the four chefs, Natasha was the only other one in the kitchen, cutting up fruits. “Orange juice, go,” she pushed him in the direction of the juicer and mountain of oranges before going back to the frittatas she was making.

“Stephen!” Sam called, knowing the sorcerer was somewhere nearby.

“Yes?” he popped up in the middle of the kitchen.

“Could you create the warming area again?” Peter didn’t catch how exactly he did it, but Stephen created an area on the kitchen island that would keep the souffles Sam was making warm enough to keep them from collapsing but wouldn’t cook them more. Sam, every time he removed a tray of chocolate or regular souffles, set them in that spot. They all used it to keep the food that was already done, warm as well.

Natasha carried a bowl of blueberries over to Thor for him to add to the next batch of pancakes as he finished the banana pancakes. Laura, as she was flipping several slices of French toast, thought again that she was thrilled there were five stoves in the main kitchen and that it was large enough for all of them to comfortably move around each other.

By the time they were done cooking, there was frittatas, cinnamon rolls, French toast, bacon, chocolate and regular souffles, banana, blueberry, and regular pancakes, fruit salad, fresh orange juice, apple juice, coffee, and tea loaded onto a long side table. Because there was so much food and so many people, it was served buffet style. Everything was on one table and everyone came up and grabbed what they wanted then either sat at the kitchen table or one of the smaller tables that was set in the entrance area.

Peter was sitting at one of the smaller tables with Shuri, Morgan, and two members of the Dora Milaje who’d introduced themselves as Aneka and Ayo. Shuri was listening to Peter ramble about how well the vibranium upgrades were working for his suit with a smile on her face. It was nice to talk science to someone outside of her own lab. Aneka and Ayo were patiently answering Morgan’s questions which ranged from questions about their outfits to why blueberries didn’t explode when you cooked them even though they did if you microwaved them.

Tony, sitting at the head of the kitchen table nearest the windows where he had a pretty good view of all of his children, smiled fondly. He didn’t have pleasant memories of family dinners from his own childhood and the period before the Avengers split up was too short and not nearly full enough of large gatherings like this. He was thrilled that they were able to all get together like this and that Morgan would continue to grow up with a community of people who cared about her. Steve, sitting on one side of him, nudged his elbow and nodded his head at T’Challa, who had clearly just asked him a question he hadn’t heard.

Loki had left his usual spot of right beside Thor to sit with Harley who was also at one of the smaller tables with Carol, Wong, and Laura. The relaxed, happy atmosphere was very different from the more formal meals and raucous celebrations he remembered from Asgard. Nebula sat at the main table beside Gamora, trying to kindle the kind of sisterly relationship she’d started to think she could have before Thanos had killed her.

After the meal, people started to drift to the living room or the cinema room or the game room, both of which were two floors up. Steve, Tony, T’Challa, and Clint had all been unlucky enough to get stuck with clean-up duty. Clean-up after a Saturday brunch always sucked, but they all felt the trade-off was worth it.

Later that evening, Peter stood in front of his closet, facing his desk where MJ and Ned were on facetime on his propped up StarkPad. “You guys, what do I wear on a not-date with a guy I really like when he says to dress up, but doesn’t give more information than that?” ~~~~

“That’s…. Harley asked you out?” Ned asked.

“No, I don’t think so. I don’t know. He never said it was a date. He said he wanted to take me somewhere and that I should dress up for it. I need your help deciding what to wear.” He turned to his open closet and, with his friends’ help, discarded several options. Clearly, sometime when he wasn’t paying attention, Tony had added several suits and otherwise dress-up options for him.

“Why are you freaking out so much, Parker? You already said this wasn’t a date.”

“I know, MJ, but it _feels_ important. I’m sure it’s not a date, he never said that. But somehow, it feels super important.”

“At least you’re admitting you have feelings for him. You didn’t for _ages_ ,” Ned put in. Peter stuck his tongue out at his best friend. “Did he say if anyone was going with you guys?”

“Didn’t say,” Peter confirmed.

“It sounds like a date,” Ned commented. “Are you going to dinner?”

“No, we all just ate a little while ago. He literally didn’t tell me anything other than to dress up and when to be ready. Which is in,” he glanced at his clock. “15 minutes! Shit, guys!” He started freaking out a little, pacing in front of his closet.

“Peter! Relax. The black slacks that we already decided on and the green silk button-up. No, don’t question me, just do it,” MJ waved her hand at him, forestalling his questions. Peter walked off screen with the clothes she chose while she continued to talk. “It’s nice enough for just about anywhere you might go that isn’t a formal event. If he were taking you to some event, he’d have said so. You’ll have to tell us where you go when you get back.”

A minute later, he came back in view of the camera, buttoning up the silk shirt over a cotton tank top. “What do you think?”

“You look good, Pete.”

“Of course he does, I picked it out. The black loafers, Peter,” she gestured toward his closet where a pair of black leather loafers was tucked between pairs of tennis shoes. Doing as she told him, he pulled on black socks and the loafers.

“Ok guys, I think I’m good. Thanks for your help.”

“Anytime, Pete.”

“Thank you for your contribution to my crisis sketchbook,” MJ said, holding up her sketchbook. He grinned as they both ended the call. He stuck his phone and wallet into his pockets then turned to his mirror and combed his hair quickly. The curls would never lay flat, but at least it was combed. He took a deep, steading breath, and walked out to the living room.

Harley was standing beside the elevator, clearly waiting for him. Wearing the blue skirt. Peter grinned and hurried over to him. Before he could comment about it, Harley held out his own phone and wallet. “I have no pockets, I need you to carry this for me.”

“Absolutely,” he slid Harley’s phone and wallet into the opposite pockets of his own things as he was tugged into the elevator.

Back in the living room, Nat, Pepper, Tony, May, April, and Clint shared a confused look. “Does anyone know what’s going on there?” Tony asked. Everyone shook their heads at him.

In the elevator, Peter took in Harley’s appearance. He had paired the blue skirt with a solid black top that had wide sleeves that came almost to his elbows. “You’re wearing heels!”

“Yeah. Loki taught me to walk in them. The woman at the store said it’s easier to learn to walk in shorter heels like these,” he braced a hand on the elevator wall and lifted a foot, showing off the inch and a half heel. “She said they’re called kitten heels.”

“You look good, Harley.”

“Thanks,” he grinned. “You don’t look half bad yourself.” They stepped out of the elevator and went outside to find Happy waiting beside one of the Tony’s cars for them. “Thanks for this, Happy.”

“It’s part of my job, kid.”

As Happy drove away from the Tower, Peter turned to Harley again. “Are you going to tell me where we’re going, now?”

“Nope. It’s a surprise,” he grinned. Peter pouted but didn’t press the question. Honestly, he was more excited and nervous than he was curious about where they were going. They made idle small talk as Happy drove them. Finally, he pulled up in front of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

“Harley?” Peter slid out of the car behind him.

“Thanks, Happy. Yeah, Pete?”

“Call me when you’re ready to be picked up.”

“Are we seeing what I think we’re seeing?”

“I guess that depends on what you think we’re seeing.”

“Russian Hamlet.” Harley grinned and Peter squealed, clutching his hand. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. Seemed like something you would enjoy. Come on,” he tugged on his hand then looped his own arm through the crook of Peter’s elbow. “Just in case I need steadying, I’ve only practiced in Loki’s room,” he explained when Peter raised an eyebrow at him.

After the ballet, Peter twirled around in place as they waited for Happy to pick them up. “Harley, seriously, that was spectacular. Thank you so much.”

“Absolutely, I’m glad you enjoyed it.” Peter, too distracted by his own spinning, missed the besotted look on Harley’s face which was quickly schooled into a more appropriate expression when Happy pulled up.

“Hi Aunt May,” Peter waved at her when he opened the door for Harley. “I didn’t know you were coming too.”

“Happy and I are going to our apartment for tonight and possibly tomorrow night too.” May and Happy were not the only people to maintain a home outside of the Tower. Though everyone had rooms in the Tower and were more than welcome there, most had their own homes for when they wanted space from the madness that was Avengers Tower.

“Oh. That’s good.” He smiled up at her so she knew he meant it. It was still a little odd for him to think of May and Happy as a couple, but they were good together, so he was happy for them. They were dropped off in front of the Tower and, after saying their good nights, Peter and Harley made their way into the empty lobby.

“Welcome back, Harley and Peter.”

“Hey, FRIDAY,” Peter greeted the AI.

“Hang on a second,” Harley leaned back against the wall once they were safely inside.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, my feet are killing me from the heels. I don’t understand how some people can wear them all day.”

Peter looked around them and, after assuring himself that there was no one else in the lobby, held out a hand and said, “Do you trust me?”

Harley grinned, “What is this, _Aladdin_?” Peter rolled his eyes, but didn’t answer. “Yes, Pete, I trust you,” he reached out and took Peter’s offered hand.

With a grin of his own, Peter tugged him forward and swept an arm under Harley’s knees, picking him up bridal style and delighting in the squeak of surprise from Harley. He strode over to the elevator door which FRIDAY opened without prompting. As they began their assent to the upper floors, Peter set Harley back on his own feet. “Ok?”

Harley, in an effort to distract himself from his own racing heart at the casual display of strength, grinned and teased, “I could’ve just taken off the shoes.”

“Maybe, but you still would’ve had to walk on sore feet,” Peter teased right back, stepping closer to the taller man.

“I suppose that is true,” Harley stepped forward, reaching for one of Peter’s hands. The elevator wasn’t big, being the private elevator, and they now stood with just a few inches between them. Harley’s eyes flicked down to Peter’s lips and, though they didn’t know it, they were both thinking the same thing: _Is this it? Is he going to kiss me now?_

Then the elevator dinged, and the doors slid open, revealing the few people who were still up and milling about. They didn’t jump apart, but they did take a step back from each other. “Thanks again for tonight, Harley. It really was spectacular,” he said as he supported Harley out of the elevator.

“Any time. I had fun. Good night,” he said to Peter and made his way past Loki, who was looking at him with sympathy in their eyes. No one else paid much attention to either of them as Harley, then Peter headed down the hall to their own bedrooms. Neither of them spoke to each other, something feeling awkward between them now.

As soon as he closed his bedroom door, Peter reached for his StarkPad and called Ned and MJ again.

“Hey, Loser,” MJ greeted.

“You guys were out late,” Ned commented.

Peter sat on his bed and tugged off his shoes. “He took me to the Lincoln Center to see Russian Hamlet. You guys, it was incredible!”

“Hamlet in Russian?” MJ raised an eyebrow as Peter unbuttoned the top couple of buttons on his shirt, tugged it off, and tossed it in the general direction of his laundry hamper.

“No, it’s a ballet put on by the Eifman Ballet company of St. Petersburg about Prince Paul of Russia. It’s called that because his life resembled the play. I’ve wanted to see it for _years_ and have never gotten the chance to. It was so amazing, guys.” Peter wanted to tell them that Harley had even dressed up in one of his skirts and had learned to walk in heels but he wasn’t sure if Harley would be okay with him sharing that information with Ned and MJ, even though he’d worn the skirt in front of their families. He stepped away from the screen to change into his pajamas.

“So, you had a good time then. Was it a date?”

“I don’t know,” Peter flopped back onto his bed and turned his head to face his friends. “He still never said. _But_ I think he might’ve almost kissed me in the elevator on our way back. Except then we reached our floor and the doors opened and there were people there and just…. Ugh. Oh! Hang on, I’ll be right back,” he jumped up, suddenly remembering that he had Harley’s phone and wallet in his discarded slacks.

He hurried to Harley’s room, part of him hoping he would be there so he could ask if that had been a date and if Harley was about to kiss him and part of him too nervous to actually _ask_. He knocked on the door and went in, like usual, but Harley wasn’t there. He set the phone and wallet on the edge of Harley’s dresser and went back to his own room where he laid back on his bed and kept talking to Ned and MJ until he started to fall asleep.

Meanwhile, Harley stripped out of his heels, skirt, and blouse. He pulled on a pair of lounge pants and black tank top then, checking to make sure no one was around, snuck down the hall to Loki’s room. The door was already open when he got there. He groaned, flopping face first onto Loki’s bed, who tutted and gently patted his back.

“I was so close, Loki! I think he was gonna kiss me!”

“Tell me about the ballet – how’d your night go?”

Harley twisted until he was on his side, facing them. “Amazing. He was so focused and so into the movement on the stage that he started swaying or moving his hands with the dancers. I’m pretty sure he cried a couple times. It was…. Ya know how Morgan gets when she’s really excited or happy about something and it just seems to light up her whole body and everybody around her? And she’s practically bouncing off the walls but no one cares because she’s so damn happy?” They nodded. “He was like that, except quieter. Just pure joy.

“And _then_ , when we got back home, I had to stop for a second because my feet were hurting. And he picked me up and carried me into the elevator! Just one of the most casual display of strength I’ve ever witnessed. He’s cradling me against his own chest and I felt like my heart was about to beat straight out of my chest! I swear, Loki, we were about to kiss when the damn doors opened!”

“So why didn’t you follow him to his room or take him out onto one of the balconies?”

“I dunno,” he shrugged with one shoulder. “It just felt awkward after being interrupted, I guess.”

“Alright, well, move up here and we’ll watch a movie to distract you,” Loki held a hand out and the remote to their tv floated into their hand. Harley moved so he was propped up on the headboard beside them and settled in to watch whatever nature documentary they were interested in watching next.

The next morning, Tony announced that he wanted to do something with his kids outside of the Tower. Morgan declared she wanted to go to the zoo and the other three followed along, none of them wanting to argue with Morgan and besides, zoos were always enjoyable. April and May both had to go to work and were unable to come but Abbie agreed to go with them. As they were getting ready to leave for the day, Rhodey strolled in and asked where they were going.

“To the zoo, Platypus, want to come?”

“Please come, Uncle Rhodey! It’ll be fun!” Morgan pleaded.

“Yeah, Uncle Rhodey, it’ll be great!” Peter grinned.

Rhodey groaned and turned to Tony for support. “How do you say no to both of them?” Tony grinned but didn’t answer. It wouldn’t help matters if he confessed in front of his children that he was unable to say no to any of them, let alone two at once.

They ended up taking two cars. Rhodey, who did not like to ride separately from his best friend for obvious reasons, drove Tony, Nebula, and Morgan along with all the things needed to keep a five year old happy throughout an entire day out, while Pepper drove Abbie, Peter, and Harley. They arrived at the Bronx Zoo just as it was opening and joined the rest of the crowd lining up to get inside.

Peter and Harley took turns lifting Morgan up so she could see into some of the enclosures or carrying her on their shoulders. Though she ooh’d and aah’d over every animal, it was the tiger, pacing back and forth and staring down at all the humans looking up at him, that held her attention the longest. Privately, Abbie thought the tiger reminded her a little of Nebula, mostly due to the same expression on both of their faces. And that both of them wouldn’t hesitate to kill the people around them if it became necessary.

Throughout the day, the family was mostly left alone by the general public, which was a weird experience for Tony. He’d been expecting to be fairly mobbed by people like he had been every time he’d ventured out in public for most of his life. It took until about half way through the day for him to realize that the reason he wasn’t being mobbed was because of Nebula. Even when she was happy she had a stare that would scare off people who didn’t know her. And some who did.

By the time they piled back into the cars just before dinner time, it seemed like Peter and Morgan were trying to compete for who could gush over the animals the most. Nebula said she was “Happy to add to my knowledge of Earth’s wildlife”. Harley and Abbie were quietly comparing the experience to the one time they’d gone to the zoo in Tennessee – which didn’t compare at all because this trip had been much less stressful and way more fun. Rhodey and Pepper together decided this was something that needed to happen with the family regularly. Not necessarily the zoo – but a family outing of some kind. They saw how much fun the kids had and how happy that made Tony and decided it needed to happen more often. Tony, meanwhile, had used his sunglasses to continuously capture photos and video of the whole day while he continued to enjoy himself.

Tony and Pepper, who had witnessed the boys leave the night before, didn’t get a chance to pull them aside and ask them any questions, even after they got home and had dinner together. Which meant that Harley and Peter didn’t have a chance to talk to each other either. And Morgan, wound up on sugar and excitement from the zoo, kept them all occupied until first Tony, then Abbie, then Harley, and finally Pepper all gave up on trying to stay awake and went to bed early. Peter and Nebula stayed up with Morgan until, in the middle of running around the living room, she flopped onto the couch and was asleep instantly.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In today's chapter, we start off with the story of how Rhodey came to be nicknamed 'Platypus', Parkner actually communicating what they want, secret talents revealed among the Avengers, and a little light kidnapping.

The afternoon after their zoo trip, Tony was sitting in the living room with Natasha, Clint, Rhodey, Thor, and Bruce. They were just chatting, sharing old stories, reminiscing about the good times from before the whole thing with Ultron. Morgan was playing with Clint’s son Nate, Nebula was with Pepper as she went to a meeting for Stark Industries, and Harley and Peter were once again in the lab.

“Please, Platypus?” Tony wheedled, doing his best impression of Peter’s puppy-dog eyes. Rhodey, however, had long since grown immune to Tony’s wheedling and only raised his eyebrows at his best friend.

“I am absolutely not getting up to get you a drink when you’re more than capable of doing it for yourself.”

“But, Platypus, you’re my best friend.”

“But Tony, you should get up and do it yourself. The motor skills required for pouring a drink is good practice.” Technically, Tony didn’t need to practice his fine motor skills much. He’d had the new arm for long enough, and it was well made enough, that his motor skills were practically back to where they had been before he’d lost his arm.

“Stark, why do you call him Platypus?” Clint asked.

“Because he’s a menace to society like his children, but mostly a menace to his friends,” Rhodey answered.

Tony chuckled and turned to face Clint. “That doesn’t matter for this story because we don’t actually remember whose idea it was. See, we were roommates at MIT, that’s how we became friends. Rhodey was taking an anthropology elective and somehow, down the rabbit hole that is research, he learned that not only is the platypus a weird-ass animal, it is also venomous. This lead to a discussion -”

“Argument.”

“- about whether or not a platypus is venomous enough to significantly harm a human, or if it’s more like mild discomfort. According to Rhodey’s research, the area where a platypus stings is very painful but other than that, it doesn’t cause long-lasting damage.”

“Lies.”

Tony smiled at Rhodey but kept going. “Like I said, I don’t know who’s idea it was. We were both _very_ drunk. We apparently broke into the Boston zoo, which had a temporary platypus exhibit. I don’t remember doing that, but the ER doctors said those were the only platypodes anywhere near us. What I do know, is we were picked up by EMS about half a mile away from the zoo where we had collapsed and were apparently sobbing in pain.

“The next morning, we were the talk of the hospital. I think every single person who worked at that hospital found some excuse to stop by our room just to see the two idiots that were dumb enough to climb into a platypode enclosure and get stung. I heard a nurse refer to us as ‘the platypus brothers’, which is apparently how they were all referring to us. And decided it made a great nickname for Rhodey.”

“It hurts for _weeks_ , and it hurts real bad,” Rhodey said, rubbing the spot on his calf where he’d been stung in remembered pain.

“So how’d Rhodey get stuck with the nickname?” Bruce asked.

“Because Tony is still known at Harvard as The Feral Rat Child. He walked, well more like barged, into the Science Center and yelled at the top of his lungs that Harvard sucks and they should get a real degree. One of the professors grabbed him by the arm to haul him out and he bit the man hard enough to draw blood then ran as soon as he let go.”

As their laughter died down, Steve and Bucky walked into the room. “Next June 18th,” Steve walked up to Tony, giving him a date apropos of nothing.

“What are you talking about, Steve?” Natasha asked from the other couch.

“Seriously, _Stark’s_ the first person you wanted to tell?” Bucky followed behind him.

“Not a want, Buck. I had to.”

Tony’s eyes flicked between the two of them before he jumped up and started dancing in celebration. “I told you so,” he grinned at the pair when he flopped back down on the couch. “Do you know where yet?”

“No. This just happened last night.”

“Cool. We can always host the reception here in the Tower. Security will be better that way.”

“Reception?” Everyone else in the room was still confused.

“Yep,” Tony said, popping the ‘p’ sound on the end. With a nod from Steve when he looked over at him, Tony announced, “Rogers and Barnes are getting married.” Everyone cheered and congratulated the pair. As the celebration quieted a little, Tony added, “And I get to give Rogers away!”

“What?” Bucky rounded on Steve. Steve ducked his head, rubbing the back of his neck and mumbled something. “No, Steve, say so we can hear you.”

“The day after he woke up in the hospital, he claimed the right to give me away when we got married.”

“How? We weren’t even together then!”

“Yeah, he tried to tell me that too. I told him that when you two finally got your acts together and got engaged, I was gonna be the one to give him away. So here we are,” Tony spread his arms out.

Meanwhile, Peter and Harley were working on an old Iron Man suit. Or, more accurately, they were deconstructing one. It was already completely inactive because Tony had promised Pepper, but the boys had decided they wanted to tinker with it to figure out exactly how it worked. They knew in theory – they’d both seen all the schematics for it – but that was different than actually pulling it apart to see how it worked. For a change of pace for them both, Harley was sitting at the computer going over the code while Peter was the one with tools in his hands.

Which is all he was really doing. He wasn’t making much progress on actually taking apart the suit. Instead, he was fiddling with the tools, occasionally switching which one he held, while he looked deep in thought. The almost-kiss after their not-a-date was still preying on his mind and he was trying to come up with a way to bring it up to Harley. He’d talked to MJ and Ned the night before after Morgan had finally passed out. Ned commiserated with him over how much it would suck if he’d read the situation wrong while MJ, only glancing up at his face periodically while she sketched in her crisis notebook, had bluntly told him to just kiss him and see what happened. After all, it couldn’t be worse than when he tried to date Liz and her dad had turned out to be a world-class criminal.

“Pete, what’s up?” Harley asked, concerned at his lab partner’s lack of attention.

“Nothing, it’s fine.”

“You sure?” Peter nodded. Harley turned his attention back to his computer screen he was standing at but continued to watch him fiddle with tools from the corner of his eye. He hadn’t yet found a way to talk about the kiss that had almost happened in the elevator and he was determined to bring it up while they had this time alone together. But, Peter’s distraction made him nervous. What was it that was keeping him from looking at Harley? Was he going to tell him that, even though the date was nice, he didn’t think of Harley that way? Was he trying to think of a way to let him down easy? Harley tried not to let the self-doubt creep in, tried to remind himself of Loki’s encouragement, but as usually happens with self-doubt the more he tried not to focus on it the louder it became. He watched as Peter finally set his allen wrench down and approached but didn’t look up until he was right beside him. He turned to face him more fully and tried to not be distracted by how adorable Peter looked, tugging at the bottom of his t-shirt.

“Um…. Can I – can I kiss you?” Peter asked, nervously not making eye contact but not looking away from him either.

Harley, dumbstruck because this was _definitely_ not what he expected, only nodded. Peter leaned forward and gently pressed his lips to Harley’s. It was over far too quickly, but Harley swore he could feel a tingly sensation from his lips to his toes. Peter pulled away and Harley made a distressed noise he didn’t know he was capable of making. But it didn’t matter because when Peter heard it, he grinned, took ahold of Harley’s hand, and kissed him again.

They pulled away from each other and Harley leaned down a little so he could rest his forehead on Peter’s. “So, um, the ballet. Was that a date?” Peter asked.

Harley pulled back with a groan. “I never said ‘date’ did I?” He dropped his head down on the desk, a position that left him semi-kneeling at an awkward angle. “I suck at asking you out,” he muttered in low enough of a voice that Peter wasn’t sure if he was meant to hear it or not.

“Nuh-uh,” Peter shook his head. “At least you actually _asked_ , as opposed to me who’s just been talking to his friends about the huge crush I have.”

“Oh yeah?” Harley rolled his head so he was looking up at Peter with a grin.

“Mm-hm,” Peter nodded with a smile.

“So, just so there are no misunderstandings this time,” Harley lifted his head and turned to face Peter properly. “Will you be my boyfriend?”

“Absolutely.”

It wasn’t so much that they intentionally didn’t tell anyone that they were dating, as much as it was that they just didn’t announce it. Loki didn’t need told, they seemed to notice right away. After they left the lab to head up to dinner together, Loki had smiled and nodded at Harley. They told MJ and Ned when the four of them got together at Ned’s apartment to do school work because the two of them didn’t live at the Tower. But other than that, the two of them just kind of assumed that the people they were living with would figure it out or ask them about it, so they didn’t announce it.

Just like Harley didn’t announce that he liked wearing ‘womens’ clothes, he just did it. Abbie asked him once if his pronouns had changed, which they hadn’t, and that was really the only discussion about his clothes. Peter also didn’t tell anyone else that he still danced, but he did move his practices to the training room where people were likely to find him.

On a stormy afternoon two weeks after Harley and Peter had become a couple, they were in the training room together. Harley knew that, though Peter liked dancing variations from actual ballets, what he liked best was to listen to a piece of music and just let the music guide his movements. It had become something of a game to the two of them to let Harley chose a song or type of music that one wouldn’t normally think of dancing ballet to and for Peter to try dancing to that song.

Today, Harley had chosen something with bagpipes. Peter didn’t know the name of the song and he was pretty sure Harley didn’t either and had just picked it because it was bagpipes. Peter listened to it all the way through once then restarted the song and started to move to the music. From one of the benches that lined the training room, Harley watched his boyfriend twirl and leap with a fond smile on his face. He was really glad Peter had decided to share this part of himself with him.

The music ended and Peter held still – left leg crossed behind the right, toes of that foot pointed back, arms curved above his head – as Harley started clapping. Then his head jerked up as he heard more hands clapping by the doorway. He looked over to see Tony, Morgan, Aunt May, Natasha, and Steve. He brought his arms down, threw a slightly-panicked look at Harley, and turned to say something to the people who had just walked in.

“That was so cool, Petey!” Morgan said, running to him and flinging herself into his arms. “When did you learn to do that? I wanna learn to do that! Can you teach me?”

“Hey Morgs. It’s called ballet. I learned to do it when I was little like you. I can’t teach you, but I bet if you ask Dad, he’ll find a studio to get you signed up with, and then I can help you practice.”

“I didn’t realize you still dance, sweetie.” It wasn’t quite a question, but May was still looking for an answer.

“Yeah, after the bite, I decided I had an unfair advantage in any kind of sport, so I dropped out. But,” he shrugged, still holding Morgan. “I like to dance so I kept doing it. Just like, in my room or the roof of our old building.”

“What’s with the bagpipes?” Tony asked. Peter, with a mock-glare at his boyfriend, explained their game.

Natasha smiled and walked over to him. “You know, the Red Room had me trained as a classical ballerina. Among other things, of course. But, should you want a dance partner Little Spider, you know where to find me,” she ruffled his hair and stepped away.

Steve, arms crossed over his chest and a small smirk on his face, said, “The flexibility clearly isn’t from the spider bite at all, is it?”

“It is! Just… not as much as I let everyone believe.”

“Huh.” Tony was staring over at Natasha as if something had just occurred to him. When she raised an eyebrow at him, he explained. “Just wondering how many of us Avengers, despite having lived together for a while, have talents we don’t talk about. Because I just realized that I didn’t know that you can dance ballet too and I don’t think you guys know that I can play piano.”

Morgan looked over at him, confused. “I don’t understand.”

“You never even played for your daughter?”

Tony turned to face May. “No. I think I know why though,” he started sharing his thought process out loud. “I mean specifically with the rest of the Avengers – there’s a lot of pressure to fit in with the image we present to the rest of the world. Like, despite being wrong, ballet doesn’t fit into the general public’s image of a badass assassin. It’s too girly or not tough enough or whatever. Playing piano doesn’t really fit with the public image I had for most of my life either. So now, I wonder what little talents and skills we each have that don’t fit with our public images that we’ve also – whether by design or not – kept from each other.”

“Only one way to find out. Come on, I think most of the others are still upstairs,” Natasha tugged on his arm and lead him upstairs, the others following in their wake. She rounded up all of the Avengers that were in the Tower right then and they discussed Tony’s thoughts about hidden talents.

They had a mini-talent show, for those who had talents that could be demonstrated that way. They learned that Bruce could juggle up to five different sized objects. He could even walk around or spin in place while keeping all the objects going. Steve brought out his sketchbook and a canvas to show off his art skills. Thor informed them that his mother had taught him to weave when he was younger and, though he hadn’t touched a loom after she died, he was sure he could still do it. Tony played the piano for Natasha and Peter to dance together. Wanda went to her room and came back with a pair of knitting needles and two skeins of yarn. By the time they went to bed, she was about halfway through making a shawl. Bucky excused himself and came back with a camera and stack of prints, which he laid on the top of the piano for everyone to look at as they wanted. Tony noticed the camera was not a digital one, which led him to realize that the prints they were looking at had been developed in a dark room and not just printed onto photo paper.

Clint excused himself from the room before Bruce started and wouldn’t tell them why, though he was gone for a while. Then everyone smelled a cake baking and, later in the evening, they learned he was ridiculously good at decorating cakes. The one he made was only a two-layer, circular cake, and he pointed out to them that it wasn’t as detailed as he could do with a bigger cake or with more time. But the cake had a green fist made of fondant and chocolate arrow stuck on top with Cap’s shield, Iron Man’s helmet, Spider-Man’s spider, Black Widow’s red hourglass, and Stormbreaker drawn on the sides in icing.

Of course, they didn’t find out any hidden skills from the other Avengers who were either at their own homes, visiting family, or otherwise not in the Tower. At the end of the night, Tony pointed out to Natasha that he’d been right. They each had some sort of talent that didn’t fit with the expectations of their public lives. He was very glad he’d walked down to get Peter and Harley to go out to dinner, even though the dinner hadn’t happened. Ever since the battle, they had all grown closer again and were now closer to each other than they had been before Ultron had happened. He was aware that the more time they spent with each other like this helped to make him more content with his life than he’d ever been before.

The next weekend the Tower was full of people. Everyone was there. Since the Blip, and how overcrowded the schools had very suddenly become, Peter, Harley, MJ, and Ned had finished their senior year of high school through an online program. There had been graduation ceremonies happening all over the country and they had gone to theirs, which had been hosted in Albany, on the lawn of the state capital building. Now they, and everyone they knew and cared about were gathered in what Tony referred to as the ‘Functions Room’, which was basically a banquet hall that could serve for political functions, charity events, or parties like the one that was being hosted in honor of the four graduates.

Ned, after his initial fanboy freak out over exactly how many superheroes would be at his graduation party, had calmed down enough to actually carry on a conversation with first Scott and then Clint and Bucky had wandered over and joined them. MJ was sitting at one of the tables, deep in conversation with Pepper and Natasha, which made Peter a little nervous but not enough to try to break up that conversation.

Peter and Harley, who were used to superheroes at this point, were out on the dance floor laughing and talking to each other, and whoever else happened to be close by. A slow song came on and Peter stepped into Harley’s arms. Arms around each other, they swayed together while other couples joined them on the dance floor.

Three days after graduation, Peter had left his aunt and Happy’s apartment. He didn’t usually stay there with them, but he did go over for dinner sometimes. He’d thought about swinging over, but had ended up just riding the subway. Now, it was just starting to get dark and he was headed back to the nearest subway entrance to get back to the Tower. He’d promised Harley they’d have a movie date in one of their rooms when he got back. Someone bumped into him from behind and he felt a pinch at his shoulder blade. Then everything went fuzzy around the edges before going completely dark.

Back at the Tower, Harley was gathering snacks from the kitchen and taking them back to his room. Peter would be home soon and they had a movie date. He stopped on his way back to the kitchen for more snacks to watch Tony teaching Morgan to play piano in the living room. Since the first time he’d played for everyone, he was more often found playing the piano. When Tony’s phone started ringing, he ignored it, focusing on teaching Morgan. When it didn’t stop ringing, he stood from the piano bench and answered.

“Good evening, Stark. How are your children?”

“Who is this?” The sharp tone in his voice caused Loki and Natasha to stand from where they were sitting and Pepper and Nebula to enter the room from where they’d been passing by.

“I’m surprised you don’t recognize my voice, Tony. Are you near your tv?” The line went dead.

A video popped up on the tv in the common room. On-screen was Peter, shackled to a metal table. Before Tony had time to adjust to that image, Justin Hammer walked on screen. “Do I have your attention now, Stark? Ya know, we wanted the little girl, but this boy will have to do, won’t he? Don’t worry, he’s not dead. Yet. Depending on what you decide to do, that can all change. You’ll receive instructions soon.” The tv went blank as the man picked a knife up off the table.

For what felt like hours but was actually less than a minute, Tony could hear nothing but the sound of his blood roaring in his ears. He hadn’t built himself a new suit. He’d promised Pepper. And now, he couldn’t go get his son. His son was chained to a table by a maniac and he couldn’t go rescue him. He couldn’t save Peter. He’d failed him. Again. He was going to die because of Tony. Again.

As his thoughts spiraled, Loki was suddenly there in his mind. “Not all the way in it, just a projection. Pay attention, Stark. You have resources, use them.”

Tony opened his eyes to see Loki standing in front of him, one of the Asgardian’s hands on his temple. Loki let go of him and backed away. “How?”

“Wanda’s not the only one capable of getting into someone’s head. Question me later, focus on your children now.”

“Daddy?” Morgan, arms wrapped tight around herself, stood in front of Harley.

He scooped her up and held both of them to himself. “Don’t worry. We’ll get Pete back. Promise.” Morgan nodded against his shoulder, but he felt her crying anyway. “Nebula!” He shouted, remembering exactly what his other daughter was capable of.

“Give me a direction to go, Dad. I will bring him home.”

“Right, right. Morg, I need you to stay with Mommy and Harley, okay?” He set her down. “Someone get Ned here as fast as possible. I don’t care how you do it. Nat, I need you with me on the computers. Ned’s gonna help us there, but we can get started. FRIDAY, I need Pete’s last known location, then I need traffic cams and facial recognition from there,” he strode to the lab, Nat following in his wake. Loki followed as unobtrusively as possible, but Tony still noticed him. “What, Loki?”

“Just in case you get lost in your own head again.”

“Thanks.”

“I find I’m rather fond of Peter.”

“Aren’t we all?” Nat asked, slipping through the lab doors ahead of Tony.

Faster than expected, Nebula was striding into the lab with Ned beside her. “Where do you need me, Mr. Stark?”

“We have Pete’s last location, just outside the subway station near May’s apartment,” Natasha answered when Tony didn’t. “We need your help with the traffic cams and facial recognition. It wasn’t Hammer who took him, probably paid thugs. We need to know who they are,” she pointed him to the computer he’d be working on to trace their identities. “I’ve got their car on the cams, but we’re still trying to follow its path and see where they went. Unfortunately, it’s a black CR-V, which is ridiculously popular.”

The three of them worked in near silence, the only sounds being the clicking of computer keys. Until Ned’s phone went off. Without taking his eyes off the screen, he answered it, thinking it was probably his parents. “Can’t talk now. Tell you later,” Ned nearly hit the end button but stopped moving at the voice coming through the phone.

“Ned! Don’t hang up! It’s me, I need you to get to my dad.”

“Pete?” Tony and Nat stopped typing, turning to look at him. Nebula and Loki straightened up from their positions against the wall. “Hang on,” he switched the speakerphone one. “Still there?”

“Still here. Listen -.”

“Peter! Where are you?” Tony grabbed Ned’s wrist with his flesh hand as if to pull Peter closer.

“Dad! I dunno. Inside an abandoned warehouse, which doesn’t help. Can you track the phone?”

“Already on it, little Spider. Hold on just a few minutes okay?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Peter, are you in any immediate danger?” Nebula stepped closer.

“Not in this room.”

“Good. Stay in that room until we get to you. Direction?” she looked up at Tony.

“South,” he said, glancing at Nat’s screen.

“Feed me his coordinates when you get them,” she strode out of the lab and Loki followed.

“Pete, what happened?”

“I’m not sure. I was walking to the subway, someone bumped into me, and I woke up here.”

“Are you injured?”

“Not much. A cut in my thigh that’s healing. One in my left arm that’s almost completely healed. My head still feels fuzzy and I feel stiff but I expect that’s from whatever they gave me to keep me unconscious. Dad, was anyone else hurt?”

“No. From what we saw on the cams, they grabbed you without hurting anyone else. Natasha?”

“I’ve got him. I already sent his location to Nebula. She and Loki will be with you in just a few minutes, Little Spider. They took one of the jets.” Before the Civil War and Ultron, Tony had worked on making the Avengers small jets that they could use to get to battles. They were based on the Quinjets, but were smaller and lighter since they would only be used for transport and not battle. One had been stored in an underground bunker at the Compound and they’d flown it to the Tower as soon as they were able to get to the bunker.

“I think I hear the jet, actually. Where’s Aunt May?” Time seemed to be working weird for Tony. He didn’t think Nebula and Loki had left that long ago, but if Peter heard the jet, then they must have.

“I…,” Tony realized he hadn’t thought about calling May.

“She and Happy came with me,” Ned said. “They’re upstairs with Pepper, Morgan, and Harley.”

“Good.”

“They’re in the building now. I can hear fighting outside. Well, not much fighting it is Loki and Nebula, after all.”

After a couple minutes, through the speakerphone, Tony, Natasha, and Ned heard someone pound on a metal door. “Pete, open up. It’s us,” they heard Loki call.

“I’ll be home soon, Dad.” Peter ended the call.

Tony seemed to deflate without Peter’s voice there and let go of Ned’s hand. “Come on, boys. Let’s go get the others and meet them on the landing pad.” Gently, Natasha steered them both back upstairs and onto the landing pad. She then ran back inside and grabbed Pepper, Morgan, May, Happy, and Harley.

After a few minutes, they saw the jet uncloak as it came in to land. Quickly, they landed, the back hatch opened, and Peter came running out followed by Nebula and Loki. He ran straight into Tony and May’s arms, where they were standing together waiting for him.

“I’m okay,” he murmured to them both. “My leg’s already mostly healed. I’m not hurt.”

“How aren’t you hurt? Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled you’re not, but I saw Hammer grab that knife,” Pepper spoke up, carrying Morgan closer.

“He didn’t know I’m Spider-Man. He was expecting a normal human, I think,” he stepped away from May and Tony and reached for Morgan who curled up in his arms, pressing her face against his neck. He reached out with his other arm and included Ned in the hug. “Whatever he used to knock me out wore off quickly and the cuffs he used were completely normal cuffs. They broke very easily. And I don’t think he was expecting you to find me that fast. He definitely wasn’t expecting Nebula _or_ Loki, let alone both of them. He ran out of the room when I woke up, broke the cuffs, and knocked out the guy who was standing over me.” He glanced around at all of them and saw Harley standing back a little with his arms wrapped around himself and tears streaming down his face.

“Oh, babe,” he set Morgan in Nebula’s arms and quickly made his way over to Harley, wrapping his arms around him. Much as Morgan had, Harley leaned down to press his face into Peter’s neck. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying as much attention as I could have been,” he pulled back a little to look up at Harley. He gently wiped away the tears on the other boy’s face and, when he didn’t object, leaned up to kiss him. “I’m okay, I promise,” he muttered when they pulled apart.

“ _Wait_ , when did this happen?” Tony’s voice from behind him reminded Peter that they were not alone. By the look on Harley’s face, he’d also forgotten there were other people in the room.

“We didn’t tell them.”

“We really suck at this,” Harley smiled faintly.

Peter turned so he was facing everyone else but holding Harley’s hand. “Officially? The day after we went to the zoo. We did go on a date the day before the zoo though.”

“What is that, three weeks? You two have been together for three weeks and didn’t feel the need to share that with your family?” Tony demanded.

“We didn’t hide it either,” Peter defended.

“Loki figured it out, we kinda figured the rest of you would too. Or at least ask us about it.”

“They have been acting very much like a couple in the last three weeks,” Loki added, striding past them. “Hungry, Peter?”

“Starving.”

“Battles and kidnappings make everyone hungry,” Nebula explained, seeing Harley’s slight confusion at the subject change.

“Particularly those with high metabolisms,” Loki added. They all made their way back inside and to the kitchen. Natasha had hurried in as soon as she saw Peter get off the jet to tell everyone that he was home safe. As such, Thor and Sam were already in the kitchen cooking for them all.

Peter practically inhaled three plates of the spaghetti the two of them had quickly made. Between plates, he turned to Harley. “I know we were supposed to have a movie date tonight, but could we move it out to the main living room?”

“Yeah, of course. I’m gonna go grab the snacks and drinks I already took to my room,” he smiled, kissed Peter’s cheek, and walked to his room. He didn’t need to see them to know that Loki followed him. As soon as they were in Harley’s room, he turned and practically fell into the god. Loki, after so long of knowing Harley, wasn’t surprised. They wrapped both arms around him, running a hand over his hair and down his back in an effort to soothe him. “Being a superhero is bad enough, but at least with that, he goes into it knowing and prepared for things to go bad. And there’s some element of control there. But this? Getting kidnapped and knocked out by a threat none of us even knew was a threat again? I don’t think I’m gonna sleep for a while.”

“What can I do?”

“You already did – you helped Nebula bring him home.”

Loki squeezed him tighter. “What can I do for you, right now?”

Harley gently pulled away and started gathering up the snacks. “Have you ever seen a pull-out couch?” When Loki shook their head, he explained what it was. “Can you elongate the living room couches to look like that?”

“Absolutely.” The two of them, arms full of snacks and drinks, made their way out to the living room where Loki did as they’d been asked and elongated the three couches until the ends were touching in the center of the room. Harley had pulled the coffee table to the side and set all of the snacks and drinks on it then went into the kitchen to get more. Now that their date was becoming a family affair, they needed more junk food.

When Peter came out to the living room and saw what Loki had done to the couches, he grinned, declared it was perfect, and hugged Loki. He then climbed on one of the couches, insisting that everyone else – Tony, Pepper, May, Nebula, Loki, Ned, Natasha, Sam, and Thor – join them. He sat in the middle of the couch, curling up against Harley with Morgan curled into his side. The other adults scattered themselves on the other couches, though Tony was on Morgan’s other side and May was on Harley’s other side. Harley pulled up Netflix and started _Sing_ , a much more Morgan-appropriate movie than what they were originally planning to watch.

Normally, Morgan would wander around to cuddle with other people while watching movies. But this time she stayed glued to Peter, occasionally patting his chest as if to reassure herself that her brother was right there. Harley did a similar thing, periodically pressing a kiss to the top of his head or squeezing his arm. For his part, Peter made sure he had an arm around Morgan and mostly kept his head pillowed on Harley. Halfway through the second movie – _The Croods_ – all three of them fell asleep. May and Tony covered them with a blanket and left the kids to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The story of how Rhodey came to be nicknamed Platypus is from this delightful Tumblr post: https://dailyironfamily.tumblr.com/post/186658682681/rhodey-about-to-climb-into-a-platypus-enclosure. Also, I’m unhappy with the graduation party. I feel like it should have been longer but I couldn’t think of what else to do and it’s not that important to the plot except to note that they’ve graduated high school.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter and Harley are off to college.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter and the next one take place over the course of Harley and Peter's first year at university. The end of this chapter is also where the sexy times come in and why this fic is rated E.

Peter and Harley kept their college plans secret from their family. Not because they didn’t want to tell them but because they didn’t want Tony to use his influence to get them into the school they wanted. For all the seniors who’d been Blipped away, there were different admission deadlines in place for college. It meant that, for those particular seniors, the deadline for Fall admission was extended to July 5th when most schools’ deadlines were in March – early May. It also meant that those seniors would hear back from their schools faster than the people who had to submit their applications at the regular deadline. Instead of waiting about two months, they only had to wait about two weeks. Schools all over were paying their professors overtime to help read through the applications so that they didn’t overwork the admissions department. The acceptance and denial letters were mailed out on July 19th and Peter and Harley anxiously awaited theirs.

Starting on July 21st, they spent every morning waiting in the lobby for the mail carrier to come in and took the entire stack up to the kitchen where they sorted through it, looking for their acceptance letters. Finally, on the 23rd, the one they’d each been waiting for arrived. They went to Peter’s room together where they stood silently staring at the envelope they each held. This was the important one, the one they’d been anxiously awaiting. After a shared look at each other, each boy took a deep breath and ripped open their envelopes. They looked up at each other, grinning. They celebrated quietly, dancing around in place and hugging each other.

They went back out into the main common area and looked for Tony. They found him sitting at the dining room table, tapping away at his Starkpad. Quietly, they slid the letters under the Starkpad and waited on either side of the table in front of him.

“Hovering over someone while they’re occupied isn’t creepy at all. I really think you could step it up if you tried,” Tony didn’t turn his attention away from whatever he was typing. Peter shrugged a shoulder and stepped closer so that he was nearly touching the back of Tony’s chair. Harley grinned and followed suit, so they were both looming over his shoulders. Tony sighed and looked up from the Starkpad. “Yes, boys? What can I do for you?”

“We need an apartment of our own,” Harley answered.

“Oh really? And why might that be?” Peter gestured to the table where the two letters sat. Tony took a second, but when he looked at the letters he jumped out of his chair. “MIT? You both got accepted to MIT? You’re going?” He grabbed the letters and ran, screaming, out of the room. “Rhodey! Platypus! My sons are going to MIT! RHODEY! Where are you?”

“Over here, with your wife.”

“MIT, Rhodey! Did you hear me?”

“I think everyone in the Tower heard you, Tones,” he grinned, taking the two letters Tony thrust at him.

“Congratulations, boys,” Pepper smiled and made her way over to kiss each of their foreheads. “Have you told Abbie, April, and May yet?”

“No. We just got the letters.”

“I’ll go get them!” Morgan jumped up and ran in the direction of their rooms. She came running back in minutes, dragging Abbie by the hand, April and May following behind them.

“What’s all the shouting about?” May asked.

“They got into MIT!” Tony shouted.

“Accelerated program,” Rhodey commented.

“What?” Tony, April, and May turned to him practically in unison.

“They both got into MIT on their accelerated program. Did you not read the rest of the letters, Tones?”

“ACCELERATED PROGRAM!” Tony, in his excitement, grabbed each boy by a shoulder and shook them. For Harley and Peter, the accelerated program meant that they would each graduate with a Master’s degree in the time it usually took to earn a Bachelor’s degree.

That night, they had a celebratory dinner with every one of their friends or allies who could or wanted to make it. Morgan, delighted with any excuse for a party, had made Tony go out and get another birthday crown so that both of the boys had one to wear.

After dinner, they were all sitting in the living room, eating the cake Clint had baked and decorated on short notice. Everyone who had gone to college – Rhodey, Tony, Pepper, May, and Laura mostly – were sharing funny stories of things that had happened to them in college. As the laughter from one of Pepper’s stories died down, Tony turned to the boys who were sitting together on the couch.

“So, what was that about needing your own apartment earlier?”

“Oh that. We’ve been talking about it and decided that if we got into MIT we want somewhere off campus to live instead of the dorms,” Harley explained.

“Seeing as how I’ve been kidnapped once already, we figure it’ll be safer to have our own place instead of the dorms where there’re a lot of other people around and people can slip in unnoticed.”

“Mm,” Harley nodded his agreement. “Plus, Peter won’t have to pretend he doesn’t have his powers if there are no nosy dormmates to hide from.”

“I almost agree with your logic. The flaw seems to be that you think you don’t need space for overnight guests. MIT is only about 3 1/2 hours away and I’m not sure how you think you’ll get away with us not visiting you?” Both boys gaped at him and each other. Truthfully, they had thought they’d come to the Tower to visit periodically, not that their families would come to visit them. “Good, that’s settled then. We’ll look at some houses online that have enough bedrooms and are close to campus.”

“Cars,” Pepper murmured, low enough for only Tony, who she was standing beside, or someone with enhanced senses – Peter – to hear her.

“Right. Thanks, Pep. And you’ll each take a car with you. In case your schedules are different, I don’t want either of you to be stuck on campus waiting for the other to be done.”

“Dad, that’s too much.”

“Peter, no it isn’t. I am a billionaire.” Later that night, Tony, April, May, Harley, and Peter gathered around the computers in the lab, since they had the biggest screens, to look at houses for sale in and around Cambridge.

“Dad, come on. Most of the time it’s just going to be us. That’s too much.” Peter gestured to the house on the screen.

“Yes, _most_ of the time over the next few years. However, consider this: real estate is a great investment and there’s the possibility of just keeping the house as a vacation home or for Morgan to live in when she goes to school.”

“If she wants to go to school out that way.”

“And,” Tony continued as if May hadn’t interrupted, “after the two of you are done at school, it can be rented out to other college students at a very low rate. Probably for kids who’re there on scholarships and don’t have the money to get an apartment and want something other than the dorms,” he mused.

“Besides, between each of us and Morgan, Loki, Abbie, MJ, Ned, or any of the rest of the people here who’ve grown attached to the two of you, you’ll need plenty of spare rooms. Or for friends of yours that you make at school to stay over,” April added.

“It does have a yard, Pete. And we can turn one of the bedrooms into a game room.”

“And gas fireplaces. And the jacuzzi bathtub,” Peter starred at the pictures on the screen of the large, 5 bedroom, Victorian manor. Décor wise, it still looked like a fancy Victorian manor, while having enough modern equipment to make Tony feel okay about it. “Are you sure, Dad?”

“Peter,” Tony walked up and put a hand on either of his shoulders. “I am a multi-billionaire. Yes, the two of you especially have been finding constructive and helpful ways to spend my money. But I still have more than can be spent in Morgan’s grandchildren’s lifetimes. Yes, I am sure.”

Moving day was halfway through August. Orientation was at the end of the month and it was agreed that the boys should have some time to get familiar with the area before then, so they packed up and moved halfway through the month. Steve, Bucky, and Thor came with them to assist Peter with carrying all of the heavy things, which included beds for all the guest rooms and the pool table Harley had asked for in the game room. They, along with Rhodey, Nebula, and Loki, had flown a jet, packed with everything needed to furnish the boys’ new house, to a private airstrip just outside of Cambridge while Peter, Harley, Tony, Morgan, Abbie, April, and May drove from New York to Cambridge. Steve and Rhodey rented two moving trucks and the six of them started transporting all of the furniture to the new house.

By the time Peter, Harley, and the rest of their family pulled in, most of the furniture and other necessities had been moved into the house. They unloaded their personal stuff from both cars and carried it up to the two rooms that faced each other. They knew, and likely so did everyone else, that they’d end up sharing the master bedroom eventually. But their relationship was still kind of young, and they didn’t want to rush into sharing a room. Sharing the house, they figured, was easier because they already lived together at the Tower. Steve, Bucky, Rhodey, and Thor took the grocery list Peter and Harley had written up and left for the nearest grocery store as soon as the jet was empty and the moving vans were taken back.

“How long are you guys gonna be here?” Morgan asked. She was fully aware that her brothers moving meant they weren’t going to be living with her at the Tower, but apparently no one had told her that it would be for a while.

“Well, we’re gonna be here until there’s breaks at school, then we’ll come back home.”

“First one is at Christmas,” Peter said.

“Christmas?! That’s so long!”

“Maguna, we’ll come visit them on weekends too. That’s why there’s so many bedrooms.”

“But, Daddy, that’s not the same thing! Why do you have to stay here for school? You didn’t before!”

Peter scooped her up and sat on the couch, with Harley on Morgan’s other side. He settled her between them and pretended to not notice Nebula move closer to them. “We know it’s not the same, and we know that it sucks to be apart from each other so much. But this kind of school that we’re going to is different than the kind we were going to before.”

“Which means we won’t have much time to play with you like we did before.” Harley latched onto an idea he knew she would understand. She wouldn’t necessarily care that they had more, harder work to do, but she would care that it cut into their playtime.

“Like how you don’t when you’re working in the lab?”

“Yes, just like that. So, when you come to visit on weekends, we can spend more time with you and play.”

She turned to Peter, “And how come you have to move all the way out here?”

“Because this is where our school is.”

“Oh.” She was quiet for a minute, and the boys sat and let her think. Peter turned to look at Nebula and reached for her hand. She gave him a small smile and gently squeezed his hand, quietly showing that she too understood why they were moving. “I still don’t like it. But it’s okay, I guess.”

As promised, they were each left with one of the Audis Tony owned. They were also each left with a black credit card that was linked to Tony’s bank account. After unpacking, they went out exploring the city and picking up decorations for their new house.

It turned out, living together on their own was a lot different than the boys had expected. At one point, when they were both losing their minds over chores not getting down when each thought they should be, they sat together in the living room and decided on a way to split the household chores. Like, Peter having to be the one to do dishes because Harley was the one who cooked. Unless they went out to eat for dinner, then they’d do whatever dishes there were together after they came home. Though they each picked up after themselves daily, they made sure to thoroughly clean the kitchen, living, and dining rooms together before their families came to stay. After sorting all of the household chores, living together was easier, the way it had been at the Tower.

They developed something of an evening routine. They’d both be back from class by about 4, spend an hour or so decompressing by watching tv together. Then they’d go to the study and work on classwork for another hour and a half. Peter, who was still had Spider-Man level energy, would go out for a run of about 13 miles, or half a marathon. While he was gone, Harley would start dinner. Peter would get back, shower as quick as he could, and meet Harley in the kitchen for dinner. Then, he’d do the dishes from the day while Harley sat in the kitchen talking to him or he’d go off and do some other chore he needed to get done. Then, depending on the day, they’d do more school work in the study or hang out playing ping pong, playing video games, watching tv, or relaxing and just talking. Other days, their routine varied greatly. Sometimes, they had friends over, went out with friends, or studied in the library with said friends.

About the end of October, Peter started turning the thermostat up higher than Harley was necessarily comfortable with. He’d be sitting doing his homework in the study and be almost too warm. He’d go turn the temperature down and, as soon as he started to reach a more comfortable temperature, Peter would go adjust it again to a higher temperature. Finally, it got to be too much for him and he confronted Peter about the temperature.

“Sorry, Harley. It’s just…. One of the side effects of the spider bite is an inability to thermoregulate. Well, not completely, but it’s hard for me to maintain a comfortable body temperature and I get cold very easily.”

“Huh. I hadn’t thought about something like that. Okay. So, if we turn on the fireplaces when we get home, will that help you if you’re sitting close to them?”

“Yeah, probably. Why?”

“Well, they only throw heat so far, especially if the door to that room is open. So, I could turn down the thermostat to something a little more comfortable for me and you can be close to the various fireplaces in here. That way we’re both at a comfortable temperature.” Peter grinned and agreed that would be perfect.

And it was. Peter would leave his bedroom’s fireplace on all night and Harley, who usually woke up first, would turn on the one in the living room when he came down for breakfast. Peter started eating in the living room unless it was the weekend and Harley had cooked because then the kitchen would be a warm enough temperature. Whoever left last, would turn off the fireplace in the living room and Peter would turn his bedroom’s off after he got dressed for the day. Whoever got home first would then turn on the fireplace in the living room and study. Also, the days Harley wore pants to class, he would change into a skirt when he got home to help keep himself comfortable.

That system worked well for them through most of November. And then, a few days before Thanksgiving, they had an overcast day. Most of the day, Peter spent huddled in his hoodie in classes, swearing it was colder in the building than usual. Then, after leaving his last class, he was walking to his car when the clouds opened and it started to downpour freezing rain. By the time he got to his car, his hair was matted to his head and there was freezing water running down his back. He drove home as quickly as possible, his teeth chattering the whole way.

He got in the door and Harley was there waiting for him with a mug of hot chocolate. “I thought, with the rain…. Oh Pete, come here,” he set the mug on the hall table and wrapped his arms around his shivering boyfriend. “Come on, babe, let’s get you upstairs.” Harley led him into the master bathroom and turned on the taps to let the water heat. He went over to help Peter strip off his wet coat, shoes, socks, and hoodie. “Okay, Pete, I’m going to go grab your flannel pajamas while you get in the shower. It’s warm enough to warm you up,” he tested the temperature to make sure. “But not hot so you don’t heat up too fast.”

He took his time gathering Peter’s pajamas then went downstairs to pour the hot chocolate into a thermos, in case he decided he wanted it after his shower. Once back up in the master bathroom, he set the pajamas on the counter, then pulled out a clean towel for him. “Pete, I’m going to turn my fireplace on. As soon as you’re ready, come on out and we’ll cuddle until you’re warm again, okay?”

“Harley? You’re the best boyfriend ever.”

Harley grinned. “Love you too.” It wasn’t until he was sitting on his bed in front of the fireplace, after changing into his own pajama pants and tank top, that he realized it was the first time he’d actually said the word ‘love’ to Peter. They showered each other in affection all the time – cute notes left on the fridge, cuddling, doing little things for each other to show they were thinking about each other, stuff like that. But they’d never actually _said_ ‘I love you’. “Great timing, Keener. He’s freezing from the cold rain and you decide now would be the perfect time to tell him you love him. You didn’t even say ‘I love you’, just ‘Love you too’, like he said it first and it’s all casual,” he muttered to himself. “Maybe he didn’t notice. He might be too cold to be paying attention.” He heard the shower turn off and stopped talking to himself. He knew that with his enhanced hearing, Peter would definitely be able to hear him outside of the shower.

Quickly, Peter got dressed and came out into the bedroom. Harley held out the thermos of hot chocolate. Peter drank about half of it then crawled into the bed, curling up on his side. Harley got in behind him, intending to spoon behind him, but while he was pulling up the comforter, Peter turned over so they were facing each other. Harley wrapped his arms around the smaller man who pushed his knee between Harley’s and tangled their legs together. Harley rubbed firm circles in his back in an effort to warm him up.

As he stopped shivering, he pulled back a little and said, “Hey Harley?”

“Hm?”

“I love you too,” he said, smiling sweetly up at him. Harley laughed in relief and leaned down to kiss him, bringing a hand up to cradle the back of his head. They’d had make-out sessions on the couch when they were cuddling or up against the kitchen counter, but as the kiss deepened, they both felt that this was different. Being in bed, these kisses were charged differently.

Peter pressed the length of his body more firmly against Harley’s, gripping the back of his tank top as he did. Harley rolled so he was on his back and pulled Peter on top of him, who immediately braced his weight on his forearms. Gently breaking their kiss by pressing his thumb under Pete’s chin to tilt his head up, he said, “Tell me if you want me to stop, or I do anything you don’t want,” then leaned forward to kiss his pulse point.

With his hand still on Peter’s cheek and thumb still under his chin, he was able to tilt his head further to the side so that he could kiss up the side of his neck and jaw to his ear. Peter giggled at the sensation of Harley’s light kisses at the back of his jaw, just below his ear. His giggles instantly changed to a gasp of pleasure when his arms gave out a little, causing him to drop onto Harley and press their erections together through their pants. He felt, more than heard, Harley’s moan and grin against his skin.

Harley tipped Peter’s head again, this time so he could kiss him properly. His other hand moved down to grip his hip as he pushed his own hips forward, to slide their cocks together. Peter gasped into the kiss and this time his arms gave out completely and he fell into Harley, banging their teeth together.

“Ow.”

“Shit. Sorry, Harls.”

“No, I’m okay. Only hurt for a second.” Taking advantage of Peter’s distraction, he hooked an ankle behind his boyfriend’s knee and flipped them so he was hovering over Peter, between his legs. “I really am okay, not hurt at all. You still okay?”

“Mm-hm.”

“Good,” he leaned forward to kiss him again before pulling back to look down at Peter. “Pete, I need to know, how comfortable are you going tonight?”

Blushing, Peter smoothed his hands up Harley’s arms to reassure himself that this was totally not something to be embarrassed about. It was Harley asking and they loved each other. “Um… I’m not totally sure? Definitely not like _all the way_ but before that, I’m not sure. Is that okay?”

“Babe, that’s more than okay,” Harley leaned forward and kissed him again, their clothed cocks pressing together again. He trailed kisses down his neck, one hand sliding down his side to the edge of his shirt. He slid his hand up his shirt, fingers trailing up his abs as Peter’s breathing got heavier. “Okay?” he asked, gently tugging the shirt up so Peter would know what he meant. “I need words, Pete,” he said when he only moaned in response.

“Yeah. Yes.”

With a smile, he tugged the long sleeve shirt up, Peter lifting up just enough to help him get it off. He sat up to toss the shirt toward the foot of the bed and his own tank top followed after it. Peter’s hands came up to shoulders and trailed down his pecs and abs, fingers light on his skin. He stayed sitting up, letting Peter touch wherever he wanted. When he put a hand on his lower back and pushed gently, he resettled himself over Peter and kissed him again.

He trailed kisses and licks down his neck, over his collar bone, across his chest, and down his abs, paying close attention to the spots that made Peter gasp or moan or wiggle. By the time he reached the waistband of his pajama pants, Peter was gripping one of his shoulders, the other hand fisted in the sheet, and panting. Harley, delighted by how responsive he was, grinned up at him. When Peter looked down at him, he slid his fingers into the waistband of his pants.

“Yes,” he answered without being asked. Harley slid his pants off, tossing them the same way as the shirt. He sat back on his heels to admire the way Peter looked, chest flushed and heaving, cock standing proudly between his spread legs. With a light, almost teasing touch, he started to trail his fingers up both legs. “Wait.” Harley immediately pulled his hands away and sat back on his heels again. “Your pants too.”

“As you wish,” he said.

Peter giggled. “I am not Princess Buttercup.” Harley grinned and winked at him as he pulled off his own pants and tossed them into the pile of clothes.

He leaned over Peter again, kissing him and pressing their cocks together without the barrier of their pants for the first time. Peter gasped into the kiss and his hands flew up to grip Harley’s back. He pulled back a little to look down at and admire Peter, “You look beautiful like this. Spread out underneath me, chest and face flushed, panting and sweating.” As he spoke, Peter’s blush deepened but cock twitched and his grip on Harley’s lower back tightened, digging his blunt nails into his skin. Harley filed away the information that Peter liked to be praised for later. “Pete, can I touch your dick?”

He nodded frantically. “Yes.” Still with a light touch, Harley slid his fingers over Peter’s hip and up his shaft. Peter gasped, slammed his eyes shut, and thrust his hips up, seeking something more substantial to rub against than just the light touch of Harley’s fingers. Watching his face the whole time, Harley wrapped his hand around the base of his cock and steadily stroked him. Peter’s eyes flew open and he looked up at Harley, who smiled down at him.

Hand still steadily stroking his dick, Harley leaned forward and whispered, “Peter, I want to suck your dick now. Can I do that?”

“Please, yes,” he gasped out, thrusting up into his hand as he did. Harley grinned and trailed kisses and light bites down his chest and abs. He let go of Peter’s cock the further down his body he got and smirked at the whine of frustration that caused. He readjusted and settled himself between his legs, looking up at him through his lashes. Peter was watching him with wide eyes and he wondered briefly how blown his own pupils were.

Starting at the top of one hip, he licked and kissed his way down his hip, the top of his thigh, the inside of his thigh, over to the inside of the other thigh, never touching his cock or balls, but coming close enough to make Peter squirm in arousal and frustration. “Harls, please,” he whined, eyes still fixed on his boyfriend, hands clenching the sheets.

Though his own cock was unbelievably hard, he could at least take mercy on them both by getting his mouth on Peter’s cock. Harley gripped one of Peter’s hips and licked a stripe up his cock from base to tip. Peter gasped and a hand flew to his shoulder then, when he realized he couldn’t quite grip his shoulder, he threaded his hand in his hair. Harley wrapped his free hand around the base of Peter’s cock and swirled his tongue around his head before taking him all the way into his mouth. He bobbed his head, swirled his tongue, and watched Peter’s face as he came apart under him.

Harley pulled his mouth off of his softening boyfriend. He realigned himself with Peter’s body, his own hard dick pressing into Peter’s hip. “Can I, um…?” Peter’s eyes flicked down to look at Harley’s cock.

“Yeah, Pete, anything you want.” A little unsure of himself, Peter trailed his hand down Harley’s chest and abdomen. His eyes flicked up to look up at Harley’s face, but mostly he looked down at his cock. Harley pressed soft, encouraging, kisses to everywhere he could reach on Peter’s neck, shoulder, and chest. Harley gasped at the first touch from those tentative fingers. “You’re doing great, Pete.” The encouragement seemed to help because Peter wrapped his hand around the base of his cock and stroked. He set a steady rhythm and nervously looked up at Harley. “Just like that, Peter.” Peter smiled up at him and used his other hand to pull him down for a kiss.

Having ignored his own arousal for a while, it didn’t take long before Harley was shuddering and cumming on Peter’s abdomen. He dropped down, resting his head against Peter’s shoulder and neck.

Peter lay under Harley, breathing deeply and running his fingers up his spine. “Well, I’m certainly warm now,” he murmured.

Harley huffed out a laugh, his breath tickling Peter’s neck. “Need me to move?”

“Not yet,” he hooked a leg behind Harley’s knee to keep him there.

“Gonna want a shower soon,” Harley mumbled, pressing his face closer to Peter’s neck and generally looking like he didn’t want to move to get that shower. After a few more minutes when the fluids on both of their bodies started to cool and become uncomfortable, Harley started to pull away. “Come on, shower.” He tugged Peter’s hand until he was standing and they made their way back into the master bathroom and the giant shower. Harley grabbed his phone on the way and ordered their usual pizza order on the app, and stepped into the shower behind his boyfriend.

They helped each other shower off, both of them a little shy and nervous to be showering together but also thrilled at the intimacy. The pizza arrived shortly after they got out of the shower and they sat in the living room to eat. Harley leaned against one arm of the couch, leg propped on the couch, and Peter leaned back against his chest. With the hand that wasn’t holding his pizza, Peter drew little swirls on Harley’s thigh beside him.

“Hey Harley?”

“Hm?”

“Where… um, where did you learn to do that?”

“You mean did I have a boyfriend before?” Harley knew Peter hadn’t seriously dated a guy before him, but they hadn’t really discussed Harley’s dating past.

“Yeah.”

“No, I didn’t. I had Jack,” he sighed and took a drink of his soda before telling Peter about Jack. “We weren’t in a relationship, but we were friends. And we were pretty much the only guys interested in guys in our grade. So, we experimented together,” he shrugged.

After eating, they made their way back up to the master bedroom. There was a little hesitation from Peter when they reached the top of the stairs where he was unsure if Harley would want to sleep in the same bed but Harley tugged his hand again and led him into his bedroom.

Curled up in bed again, this time with Harley spooned behind Peter, they watched the fire and enjoyed the comfort of laying together. Just as Peter was thinking how much he would like to do this all the time, Harley said, “Hey Pete, I was just thinking. If you want to – you don’t have to obviously – but if you want, we can move your stuff in here tomorrow after class. Or this weekend when we have more time.”

Peter grinned, lifted his hand that was intertwined with Harley’s, and kissed his palm. “Yeah, I’d like that.” Harley snuggled in closer, pressed a kiss to Peter’s hair, and they both drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s been forever since I’ve written an explicit sex scene, but there it is. I’m actually pretty happy with the way it turned out. Also, this chapter and the next one were intended to be the same chapter, but together they’re about double what my regular chapters are so I split them. Anyway, just two more chapters left. Well, one and the epilogue.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas with the fam, some relationship drama back at MIT, and the rest of the boys' Freshman year.

“That everything, Babe?” Harley asked, leaning around the open trunk of his car to look up at Peter who was carrying the last two boxes.

“Yeah. Lock the door while I load these?” Harley took the front steps two at a time and locked up. By the time he was back at his car, Peter had loaded the last two boxes, shut the trunk, and was walking to the passenger side door. They spent the majority of the drive singly poorly to the radio, talking to MJ on speaker when she called, or otherwise entertaining each other.

“Is it strange that it feels weird to be coming back home?” Peter asked, once they were in sight of Avengers Tower.

“Not really. We’ve gotten used to living on our own. Good weird or bad weird?”

“A little of both but mostly good.” Harley reached over and took Peter’s hand.

“Just picture Morgan’s face when we walk out of the elevator.” Peter chuckled.

A while later, they walked out of the elevator with just their regular book bags. No one was in the entry area, so they followed the sound of Tony’s voice.

“So, he’ll ask for a glass of milk. And chances are if he asks for a glass of milk he’s gonna want a cookie to go with it.” They saw Tony and Morgan sitting on the living room couch, with an open book. “The end.”

“Again, Daddy! Please?”

Tony sighed. “Last time Maguna, okay?”

“Okay.” Tony flipped back to the beginning of the book. Peter turned to Harley, put his finger on his lips to tell him to be quiet, and climbed up the wall and onto the ceiling over their heads.

“If you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to ask for a glass of milk. When you give him the milk,” as Tony turned the page, Peter interrupted.

“He’ll probably ask you for a straw.”

“Daddy! You sounded just like Petey!”

“That wasn’t me, Maguna.”

“Petey?”

“Yes, Morgan?” He was still on the ceiling and they hadn’t looked up. They both stood and spun around but Harley had already ducked out of sight.

“Petey! Where are you?”

“I’m right here, Morgs. Where are you?” They turned around again, still looking for Peter and Harley hurried to sit in the chair that was now behind their backs.

“Harley!” Morgan spun again and saw him first. She launched herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck. “But where’s Peter?” Harley grinned and pointed to Peter on the ceiling. “Peter! Hi! I missed you guys so much!”

Peter dropped down from the ceiling and landed beside Tony. “It’s good to see you boys,” Tony said, wrapping his arms around Peter.

“Who the heck left these bags in the middle of the floor? Abbie! Do you have friends over?”

“Sorry, Mom!” Harley shouted. “It’s Peter’s fault!”

April rushed in the room to see Harley standing from the chair, still holding Morgan. “It is not! I didn’t tell you to leave them in the middle of the floor,” Peter defended himself with a smile as April strode across the room to hug Harley. Within about 10 minutes, every occupant of the Tower knew the boys were home for Christmas and had made their way out to the living room. To no one’s surprise, Morgan stayed glued to either of her brothers for the rest of the day. Somewhat surprisingly, so did Nebula and Abbie was always close by.

Over the next week, Harley and Peter spent about half of their free time with their sisters and other family members and the other half in the lab with Tony. They’d recruited his help to make special Christmas gifts for their sisters.

Christmas morning dawned dreary and cold. No snow, or rain, but a very overcast sky. Morgan, like a lot of small children, woke everyone in her excitement. Peter and Harley were sleeping together in what had been Peter’s bed and was now both of theirs when she burst through the door, Nebula right behind her. Squealing, she aimed to jump on their bed and instead landed on Peter.

“Oof!” Peter’s body folded up a little around the little girl. He blinked his eyes open. “Hi, Morgan.”

“Merry Christmas, Petey!” she shouted, pushing on Harley’s shoulder to wake him up. “Merry Christmas, Harley!”

“How early is it?” Harley mumbled.

“If you have to ask, I’m pretty sure you don’t wanna know,” Peter answered.

“Are you just gonna stand there, Neb? Or are you gonna rescue us from Morg?”

Nebula smirked at Harley, walked around their bed, and sat down by his legs. Copying Morgan’s actions, she started pushing on his legs. “Wake up, Harley. It’s Christmas.”

Peter laughed as the door opened again and Abbie walked in. “Good, you’re awake. Hurry up! It’s Christmas morning, dorks.” Instead of doing anything to make them hurry, she ran to Harley’s side of the bed, sat beside him, and then laid back against his and Peter’s chests.

“Abbie!”

“Maguna, where’d you go?”

“In Peter’s room, Daddy!”

All of them turned to look at him when he entered the room, Abbie tipping her head back, so she was looking at him upside down. He laughed, snapping a quick picture of them with his phone. “Come on, hellions, we’re all waiting on you.” They all clambered off the bed and followed Tony out to the living room, Peter grabbing his sweater as he passed it.

The living room was full of Avengers and families. Because they’d known there was going to be so many people, they’d agreed on some ground rules – the main one being that you didn’t have to get gifts for everyone. To that end, they’d done a secret Santa gift exchange so everyone got something from someone not related to them.

They sat around the Christmas tree, passing out and opening gifts.

Clint opened his secret Santa gift from Peter and turned to him in confusion, holding up the DVD in its blank case. “It’s a collection of all Steve’s PSAs,” Peter told him.

“This is the greatest gift I’ve ever received,” Clint wiped away a fake tear, causing everyone who saw him to laugh and Steve to groan in embarrassment.

Thor’s secret Santa gift from Harley rattled a little when he picked it up. He looked up at Harley then opened the gift with a little trepidation, after all Harley’d been pulling pranks with Loki. Inside was a red and black metal egg. When Thor picked it up, the nanites rearranged so the egg morphed into a small red and black snake. Thor laughed as the metal snake wrapped itself between his fingers then up his arm.

“Thank you, young Harley.”

He shrugged. “Loki said you like snakes. This one’s programmed to respond to heat, so if you leave it alone for a while, it’ll go back to being an egg.”

Abbie opened her gift from Harley and turned to glare at him. Inside was a neon green penguin, which had been Abbie’s favorite animal since she was about 5. Harley just grinned at her when he saw her glare. She squeezed it as she went to set it down and Harley’s voice came out of the penguin’s beak. “I love you, little sister.”

She looked down at it then back up at Harley, who was still smiling at her. More carefully now, she set it down on the pile of gifts beside her. For the rest of the morning, she was careful to not squish the penguin under her other gifts.

“New cards! We can play more Go Fish, Neb!” Morgan said, looking at Nebula’s gift with the same delight she’d been showing all morning.

“Yes, we can. After breakfast.” Smiling at Peter and Harley, she went to set them aside with her other gifts.

“Open them,” Harley encouraged her. They were stored in a regular card box, giving nothing away.

A little confused, she nevertheless did as he asked. “Oh,” she riffled through the first 10 or so cards, pausing on some of them. “These are…. I don’t…. _Thank you_.” Still clutching the cards, she stood and waded through the sea of wrapping paper to get to Peter and Harley. She hauled them both off the couch to hug them as tightly as she could without injuring them.

“What do they have on them, Neb?” She handed the cards to Morgan. “That’s me and you! And you and Petey and Harley! This one has Mommy and Daddy! Do they all have people on them?”

“They do,” Peter answered.

“Is this what you were taking everyone’s pictures for the other day?”

“Everyone?” Nebula turned to look at Natasha, then back at her brothers.

“Yep,” Harley answered both questions. “There’s even one from the first time we played Go Fish, from the infirmary camera.” Nebula quickly shuffled through them until she found the ace of hearts he was talking about. Overwhelmed, she sank to the floor, sitting between their legs.

Morgan finally got to the gift that was taller than she was, and buried back behind all the others. She ripped off the paper with enthusiasm that only a child could keep going after so many gifts. “It’s a giant teddy bear! Thanks Harley and Petey!” She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around it. In turn, it wrapped its arms around her. Morgan gasped and then giggled. She let go of the bear, who let go of her, and turned to her brothers.

“Squeeze his right hand,” Harley told her.

She did, his mouth opened, and from the speaker came Peter’s voice. “Love you, Morgs.”

“Now the left,” Peter told her.

This time it was Harley’s voice. “Hope you’re having the best day, Morgan.”

She turned and practically threw herself into Peter and Harley’s arms.

Tony watched everything from one of the couches, with Pepper on one side and April on the other. Though the gifts his children had given him were amazing, they couldn’t compare to actually watching all of them interact with each other. The best gift he received, by far, was getting to watch them open the gifts they’d given each other. He had FRIDAY recording the whole thing so he could take stills and print them out as photos later.

He dug out his phone and turned to April and May, who was on her other side. “Did I get a chance to show you two this yet?” He pulled up the photo he’d taken that morning and passed it over to the two of them.

“Aw,” April smiled down at it, passing the phone to May.

“I need a print out of this, Tony.”

“Of course. I’ll have some from today too.”

~~~~~~~

Peter and Harley had been back at school from Christmas break for nearly a month and Harley had a huge problem. Her name was Rachel. She was in a lot of the same classes as Peter and they apparently got along well. That wasn’t the problem, of course. They had both made new friends that shared classes with them and they regularly invited those friends over to their house for movie nights, game nights, or study sessions. They went out on weekends, or had study groups in the library. It was nice, having made new friends in an unfamiliar place. But Rachel was rapidly becoming a problem that was eating away at Harley every time he saw her.

But this was too much for him.

Harley walked into the library where he, Peter, and some of their friends were getting together for a study group. Peter and Rachel were already at the table, with Peter’s back to the entrance. Rachel’s full attention was on Peter – she was sitting sideways in her seat, leaning toward him – and her cleavage was fully on display in the tight, red, long-sleeve shirt she was wearing, despite it being well below freezing outside and chilly in the library. As Harley watched, she laughed at something Peter was saying, head tilting a little to the side to make her thick, beautiful hair fall over her shoulder. She leaned closer to say something back and pushed a curl off Peter’s forehead as she did. Harley saw Peter turn more fully toward her and grin, before saying something else that made her laugh. This time, when she laughed, she reached forward to grip Peter’s upper arm.

Harley spun on his heel and rushed out to his car, bumping into Haru, one of his friends, on the way without noticing him. He threw his bag on his passenger seat and slammed the door harder than necessary. He focused on the drive back home to avoid crying. Once there, he went straight up to one of the guest bedrooms – he couldn’t stand to be in the room he shared with Peter right then. He flopped face-first on the bed and started crying.

Back at the library, the rest of their friend group had finally arrived. They all had notes, notebooks, and laptops open and spread out over the table. As they started quizzing each other on the material, Peter kept glancing toward the doorway, wondering where Harley was.

“What’s up, Pete?” Rachel asked. She was partnering with him for their Chem class.

“Wondering where Harley is.”

“I’m sure he’s fine. Maybe he didn’t feel like joining the rest of us,” she waved off his concern, leaning forward to get a better look at his notes.

That didn’t make sense to Peter. If his boyfriend wasn’t feeling well or had changed his mind about coming to study group, he would have told him. At least through a text, since Tuesdays were one of the days they didn’t really see each other until after classes.

“He seemed upset when he left,” Haru commented. Peter whipped his head around to look at his friend. He shrugged as he said, “He was leaving the library when I came in. Bumped into me and didn’t seem to notice. I’m kinda worried about him too, that’s not like him.”

“I’ll text you later, tell you what’s up,” Peter stood up and hastily shoved his stuff in his bag.

“Oh, come one, Pete. Harley’s a big boy, he can take care of himself,” Rachel rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, he can, but that doesn’t mean he should _have_ to. See you guys later,” he strode out of the library, pulling on his coat as he went. He was so worried about Harley, that by the time he pulled into their driveway, he didn’t really remember driving there.

“Harley?” he called as soon as he walked in. “Babe, where are you?” He tugged off his winter boots and tossed his coat on the rack by the door, dropping his bag to the ground. “Harls?” He started walking through the house, listening for any sounds that told him where Harley was or would give him a clue as to what was wrong with him. As he started up the stairs, he heard the muffled sound of someone crying. Following it, he opened the door to the spare room at the top of the stairs. “Babe, what’s wrong?” he hurried to the bed and sat beside Harley, reaching out to bury his fingers in his boyfriend’s hair.

As soon as his hand made contact, Harley jerked away from him. “Don’t touch me!” he snarled, jumping up off the bed and turning to face Peter.

“Love, I….”

“No! You don’t get to call me that anymore!” Peter reeled back at the venomous look on Harley’s face. “I want you to pack your stuff and move out of my bedroom. Tonight. We can still stay here together, but you better make yourself scarce.”

Tears welled in Peter’s eyes. “Harley, I don’t understand. What happened? What did I do?”

“I saw you and Rachel at the library. Flirting, more than usual. Fine, if that’s what you want, I won’t hold you back.”

“No! I wasn’t flirting with Rachel! She’s my Chem partner and kind of a friend. But I wasn’t _flirting_ with her. Harley, I would never do that to you. Besides, even if I was single, she’s not my type,” tears streaming freely down his face, Peter knelt on the bed, shuffling closer to Harley. “Please, Harley. I swear, if I was flirting with her, it wasn’t on purpose. I love you.”

Harley stared at the man on the bed in front of him, on his knees begging Harley to understand. And suddenly it was clear. Peter didn’t flirt, he knew that. Or at least, Peter didn’t know how to respond when someone else flirted with him, which he knew from having tried to flirt with him one time in the very early days of their relationship. He loved displays of affection – hugs, kisses, being told that something he did made someone happy – but he always saw the kind of flirting that Rachel was doing as being friendly. His anger instantly deflated and he knelt on the bed in front of Peter, reaching out to wrap his arms around him.

“I’m sorry, Petey. I should have known better. And I definitely shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. It’s just…. I walked into the library and I saw her all over you like that, and then you were laughing and looked like you were having a good time and I…. I overreacted.” Peter wrapped his arms around Harley, burying his face in his boyfriend’s shoulder and clinging to him like he might disappear.

They stayed there for a few minutes, kneeling on the bed, arms wrapped around each other. “Harley?”

“Hm?”

“I think my feet have gone numb.” Harley snorted and pulled back a little. Both of them wiped their eyes and sniffled as they clambered off the bed.

“Come on, I already have that steak thawed for stew. And you’ve gotten pretty good at chopping vegetables.” Peter smiled like Harley hoped he would. He reached for Peter’s hand as they reached the foot of the bed and, holding hands, they went down to the kitchen to make beef stew. The comfort of their evening routine helped restore their emotional equilibriums. As did cuddling on the couch while the stew stewed.

The next morning, while he was getting dressed, Peter thought about what Harley had said the night before. That Rachel had been all over him. He knew he was kind of oblivious to people flirting with him, MJ had pointed it out once in their junior year. But, maybe he also hadn’t made it clear to his new friends that he and Harley were more than roommates. To that end, he dug through Harley’s side of their closet for something to wear.

When he went down to grab breakfast, Harley was already gone for the day, as usual – Harley’s classes started earlier than his on Wednesdays. There was a note stuck to the fridge that said ‘Olive Juice’ with a little heart. Peter chuckled and pulled the oatmeal out of the cupboard. While his breakfast was heating, he texted Haru that Harley was doing okay now and that it wasn’t anything he needed to worry about, they’d worked it out.

About an hour later, he walked into his math class. This class, he shared with both Rachel and Harley. He set himself up at his usual spot, took his coat off, and waited. Rachel arrived first.

“Cool hoodie. Is that where you grew up?” she asked, gesturing to the red ‘Rose Hill High’ hoodie he was wearing.

“Nope. This is Harley’s hoodie.” Harley himself walked in and started coming up behind Rachel.

“Why are you wearing Harley’s hoodie?” Though it wasn’t overt, Peter was paying close attention to this interaction and noticed the slight look of disgust on her face.

“I like to wear my boyfriend’s clothes, they’re comfy,” his shrug and tone of voice said that that answer should be obvious.

“And you look good in them,” Harley said from behind Rachel.

“Thanks babe,” he grinned as Rachel spun around to face Harley who scooted past her to sit on Peter’s other side, running his fingers across Peter’s shoulders as he passed.

Rachel turned around to look at him again and he thought then that he’d underestimated just how upset she was going to be. “What the fuck, Parker? You’re gay? Why have you been flirting with me?”

“I haven’t been, Rachel. I didn’t even realize you were flirting with me until Harley said something about it last night.”

“Bullshit,” she hissed, her hands balled into fists at her sides, and her face turning red. “You knew exactly what you were doing. Is that something that gets you disgusting freaks off? Leading on innocent girls?”

“Rachel –”

“Alright class, sorry I’m late. Take your seats and we’ll begin.” Their professor strode into the classroom, effectively cutting off whatever else Peter was going to say. Rachel hurried to the other side of the classroom but kept glaring at the two of them for most of the class.

When Peter got home later that afternoon he knew Harley was already there, he could hear him in the living room. He started talking about the classes he had without Harley and how Rachel had avoided him the entire rest of the day as he pulled off his boots and coat in the foyer. He walked into the living room still talking. As soon as he got into the room, Harley grabbed his hands and pulled him in for a kiss, thoroughly interrupting the story he’d been telling.

“I’ve been wanting to do this all day,” Harley said, pushing Peter toward the wall and kissing his neck. “I love seeing you in my clothes.” Peter let his boyfriend pin him to the wall, grinning.

“Babe,” he gasped when Harley started trailing kisses down his neck again. “Babe, you gotta stop.”

“I gotta or you want me to?” Harley stepped back far enough to look at him and give him some space.

“You gotta. Haru, Noor, Kevin, and Tessa will be here soon. Remember, they’re coming over for dinner?”

Harley groaned, dropping his forehead onto Peter’s shoulder. “I forgot I agreed to feed our friends.”

Peter grinned again and ran his fingers through Harley’s hair. “I promise we can continue this just as soon as they leave.”

After one more kiss, Harley backed up and started toward the kitchen. Peter, smirking, took off his hoodie and tossed it on the couch. “Peter! That goes…. Damn you,” he rushed back pinned Peter in place again, though Peter was laughing enough that they had difficulty actually kissing each other.

This time, the doorbell interrupted them. Peter wiggled away from the wall and went to answer the door, still grinning at Harley’s response to him wearing one of his comfortable, grease-stained, t-shirts under his hoodie. “You’re a menace, Parker!”

“Maybe. But I’m _your_ menace. Hey guys,” he greeted their friends as he opened the door.

“Hey Peter. Tessa’ll be here a little later. Said her mom’s been calling all day and she was gonna stop at her dorm to call her before coming over,” Kevin explained as the three of them stepped inside.

“What’s up with Rachel?” Noor asked, hanging her coat on the rack and adjusting her dupatta. “I called her to see if she needed Kevin to pick her up and she got pissed, said she refused to hang out with you freaks.”

Harley snorted his amusement from the living room archway “She’s pissed that Peter’s wearing my clothes.”

“Okay?” Haru raised an eyebrow. “That seems like a weird thing to be pissed about.”

“That’s because what she’s really mad about is that Harley and I are together. Apparently, I can’t tell when someone’s flirting with me or just being friendly.”

“Oh! Is that what you were pissed about yesterday, Harley?” Haru followed him into the living room and the rest of them trailed behind them.

“Yeah, basically,” he answered. They sat together on the couches, making themselves comfortable. A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door and Harley got up to let Tessa in.

“She’s insufferable!” She started complaining about her mother as soon as she walked into the living room.

“What was it this time?” Kevin asked. Harley detoured to the kitchen and grabbed their usual drinks for everyone.

“A Chemistry degree isn’t going to help in the real world, Tessa. You’re too pretty to be smart, no one’s going to take you seriously.” Having never heard Tessa’s mom, none of them were sure just how accurate the high pitch she assumed when quoting her mom was. “Thanks, Harley,” she accepted the can of Dr. Pepper he handed her, flicking her braids back over her shoulder. “As if a woman’s only goal in life should be to look pretty in order to get a husband. Anyway, enough about her. How was everyone else’s day?”

“Rachel’s not hanging out with us anymore because Peter and Harley are dating,” Haru informed her.

“Wait, did she just figure that out?”

“You mean you knew?” Noor asked.

“Yeah, I thought it was obvious. Total honesty – I thought she was flirting with you because you’re a ‘safe’ option, Peter. I thought she was flirting because she knew you wouldn’t take her seriously.”

“Judging by how pissed she got when she found out this morning, she had no idea,” Harley told her.

A short while later, when Noor’s alarm for her late-afternoon prayers went off, Harley followed her out of the living room but went to the kitchen to start dinner while she went up to one of their spare rooms to pray. He made a tuna and pasta dish that he knew followed Noor’s dietary restrictions while Peter hung out with their other friends in the living room. He liked cooking for just him and Peter, but he was always happy to have more people to feed. That, and their friends always gave their honest opinions about his cooking which helped him get better at it. Not that Peter didn’t, but more opinions were better.

A few hours later, Peter shut the door behind their friends and turned to Harley. “Now, where were we before they interrupted us?” He chuckled as Harley pulled him forward and then up the stairs to their bedroom.

~~~~~~~

On an unseasonably warm evening in late March, Harley dropped onto the couch, groaning. “I don’t understand how you manage to run like this _every_ night.”

Peter grinned down at him. “Spider-Man is a New York hero, love. I can’t be Spider-Man out here. Besides, we all agreed no Spider-Man unless there’s a higher than normal emergency. So, I have to work off the energy somehow.”

“Yeah, I got that. But still,” he paused and then looked up at his boyfriend. “You took it easy on me, didn’t you?” Peter only smiled and shrugged. He did, but Harley didn’t need to know that Peter normally ran 13 miles in the amount of time it had taken Harley to run 2 1/2. “I didn’t think I was this out of shape.”

“You’re not. You just don’t normally run _and_ you’re not genetically altered by a spider. I know what you need though.” Peter left him there on the couch and went up to the master bathroom. Once there, he turned the jacuzzi tub’s taps on, testing the water to make sure it was the perfect temperature. Once it was filling up, he grabbed a lavender and eucalyptus bath bomb out of the closet and dropped it in. Bath bombs had become something of an unexpected indulgence for them both, especially with the way they frothed up with the jets on.

Harley was still languishing on the couch, one arm thrown over the armrest nearest him, when Peter got back downstairs. Peter walked over to find Harley had been watching him since he’d walked into the room. He bent down, grabbed the end of Harley’s tank top, and tugged it off. “Petey, not that I don’t love it when you undress me, but I don’t have the energy for sex.”

“I know that, just trust me.” Efficiently, Peter divested Harley of the rest of his clothes. Then he slid an arm under his knees and shoulders and lifted him off the couch.

As soon as they reached their bedroom, Harley could hear the sounds of the tub filling. Peter walked through the door of the bathroom and now Harley could smell the bath bomb he’d used. “Pete, you’re the best boyfriend in the entire world.” Peter chuckled as he set Harley in the bath. Once it was full enough, he turned off the taps and turned on the jets. “Almost perfect,” Harley groaned, dropping his head back to rest on the side of the tub.

“Almost?”

“Yeah. Come on, you’re sweaty too. Get in.” Peter grinned, stripped out of his clothes, and climbed into the tub behind Harley, who promptly tipped his head back so it was resting on his shoulder.

They lounged together in the water, savoring the new experiencing of bathing together. They’d showered together before, but baths were different. For a little while they just relaxed together in the water, letting the jets and bath bomb soothe sore muscles. After a while, Peter stretched up to grab the loofa that hung above the bath and the soap. He started massaging the soap into Harley’s skin and delighted in the feeling of his boyfriend going completely boneless against his chest. He smiled a little and kept washing every part of Harley he could reach.

“I changed my mind,” Harley mumbled. “I’m going running with you at least once a week if this is what I get after.” Peter chuckled. After thoroughly washing both of them, he pulled himself out of the tub, then turned to help Harley, who was still so relaxed he was on the verge of falling asleep. Quickly, they stepped into the shower to rinse away any soap that still lingered, then climbed into bed, curling around each other.

~~~~~~~

On their last night in Cambridge before going back to New York for the summer, Harley and Peter lay together on their bed with the bedroom windows open and the warm breeze blowing in. Harley was restless – shifting his legs, rolling toward Peter then back onto his back.

“You okay, love? Are you upset about going back home tomorrow?”

“Nah, not really. Are you?”

“Not upset, exactly. But I like this. Living together with just the two of us in the house. I know we’ll be back in the fall, and I miss our family and New York like crazy, but I like it just being us.”

Harley grinned. “Yeah, me too.” He fell quiet and still. For a few seconds. Then he started shifting against the bed again.

“Harls, what’s going on in that brain of yours?” Peter turned fully toward his boyfriend. “Come on, I can practically see your brain working. Something’s up.”

The corner of Harley’s mouth lifted up into a half-smile. Of course Peter wasn’t going to drop it. “I love that about you,” he said. “That you think something’s bothering me, so you want to help. Technically, nothing’s _bothering_ me.” He sat up and turned to look down at Peter. The moonlight from the open window hit just right so Peter’s face was lit up while the rest of him was in shadow. He smiled softly and pushed a curl off his forehead. “It’s been crazy for the past almost year and a half. We came back from dust, Tony almost died, we both found a new family to be part of. We found each other. The highlight of my day, Peter, every single day, is getting to walk through the front door and know that you’ll be here. It’s getting to make dinner while you sit in the kitchen and keep me company. It’s watching scary movies with you, that you insist you aren’t afraid of even as you cling to me and bury your face against me.”

He leaned over his side of the bed and grabbed one of the small toolboxes that he had scattered throughout the house because _‘you never know when you might need a screwdriver or wrench and it’s easier to have them stored in multiple places then have to go out to the garage every time, Peter’_. He opened the red box and pulled out a black, velvet jewelry box, then set the toolbox back on the floor. Peter, catching sight of the velvet box sat straight up, eyes wide and flicking between the box and Harley’s face.

“Harley?” he whispered.

“I love you, Peter Parker, and getting to spend every day of the last year and a half with you has been the most wonderful experience of my life. Will you marry me?” He opened the box with shaky hands to reveal a platinum ring with a marquis cut ruby that sat sideways but flat in the band.

“Oh! Oh, oh, oh,” Peter jumped up from the bed and ran to the closet. Harley nervously looked on as he climbed up the wall to get to the top of the closet. He heard something spray and then Peter dropped back to the floor, webs dissolving around his right hand. He hurried back to the bed, kneeling in front of Harley, and opening his hand to reveal a black velvet box. “Harley Keener, I love you. Will you marry me?” He opened the box, displaying the small gold band that curved around a pear-cut turquoise stone with flecks of pyrite in it.

Harley laughed in relief. “Yes, a million times yes. You?”

“Absolutely.” They slid the rings onto each other’s fingers, happy tears in their eyes. Peter, still holding Harley’s hand, pulled him in for a kiss and they fell back on the bed.

Sometime later, they lay side by side, each admiring his ring in the moonlight still coming in from the open window.

“Wait, did you really web the box to the ceiling?”

“Maybe?” Harley laughed and pulled Peter toward him for another kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In order of appearance: I had so much trouble coming up with gifts for Tony, April, and May from the kids that I just cut that part out. Otherwise, I’m rather pleased with how the Christmas scene turned out.   
> Haru is absolutely named after the Avatar: the Last Airbender character. I’d just finished the first episode with him in it when I needed a name for him in the library bit. Noor is inspired by a Muslim girl I knew in high school who, at least when I knew her, was planning to go to school for biology. Tessa and her mom are inspired by the stereotype of women can’t be beautiful and smart. Kevin is a totally generic character, just there to fill things out.  
> Finally, the proposal scene at the end is inspired by Amanita and Nomi’s proposal scene in Sense8. Which is an amazing series on Netflix if you haven’t seen it.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony being dramatic, a wedding, some sibling bonding, another wedding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is guys, the final chapter. You should know that Steve and Bucky's wedding is one of the first things that popped into my head when I originally sat down to write this story. No clue why, but it makes me laugh so I left it in. That said, when that scene popped into my head, I had it planned that King T'Challa would be their officiant because the idea of a king being the officiant at the wedding of two people he fought against originally and who're also not his subjects, is part of what made me laugh, even though the actual ceremony isn't shown. After a lot of thought, I decided to leave it in. RIP Chadwick Boseman.

Harley finished taking the battery out of Peter’s car and storing it in one of the cabinets in the garage as Peter finished loading up their boxes into the trunk and back seat of Harley’s car. Since they were only going back home for the summer, they’d decided to only take the important things out of the house and only one car. Which was why Harley was taking the battery out – so it wouldn’t die while they were gone.

On the drive back to New York, Harley couldn’t help the smile he got every time the sunlight glinted off his ring. Likewise, Peter couldn’t help staring at his and twisting it around his finger. For them both it was a tangible symbol that the man sitting beside him loved him and wanted to be with him for the rest of their lives.

Once at the Tower, they hauled up the important things that they could carry in one trip up the elevator. They’d come back for the rest of it later. Inside, on the main living floor, there were streamers and balloons hung around the room and a banner stretched across the hallway that said _WELCOME HOME HARLEY AND PETER_. But none of their family or friends were around.

Shrugging to each other, they hurried to their room and deposited their bags. When they came back down the hallway, everyone that they had expected to see was in the hall, facing the elevator.

“I thought you said the Audi was parked downstairs? Shouldn’t they be up here by now?” April asked.

“Look, GPS says they’re here,” Tony showed her his phone screen. “Yes, they should be up here by now. Maybe they’re unpacking the car.”

“Should we go down and help them?” Steve asked.

“That would ruin the surprise party, Steve,” Bucky pushed him.

Harley and Peter turned to look at each other, grinning. “SURPRISE!” They shouted, laughing as their family and friends turned to face them.

“How? But…. How did you two get up here without us seeing you?” May demanded.

Peter shrugged. “You guys got out into the hallway too late,” he said, grabbing Morgan as she ran and jumped into his arms.

“Maybe your GPS is slow, old man,” Harley grinned, taking Morgan as she leaned out of Peter’s arms. The boys were ushered into the dining room where Thor, Sam, and Wanda had made food and laid it out on the table. They all stood around, talking, catching up on the end of the boys’ school year. Neither of them mentioned their engagement. After it took their family weeks to realize they were dating, they wanted to see how long it would take them to notice the rings.

“Peter, why are you wearing a ring? I do not recall that last time we saw each other,” Nebula asked, from across the room, 3 1/2 hours after they’d gotten home.

“For the same reason Harley’s wearing a ring. And the same reason Steve is wearing a ring,” he answered, grinning.

Everyone turned to stare at them so Peter and Harley held up their left hands to show off their rings, laughing a little at the shocked faces. They were swarmed by their family, everyone wanting to get a close up look at their rings.

A few minutes later, after everyone started backing up a little, Morgan asked, “Why’s it flat? Steve and Harley’s isn’t flat,” as she twisted Peter’s ring on his finger.

“That, Morgs, is so Peter can still wear it while he’s out being Spider-Man. It fits better under the suit this way.”

“Wait,” Peter turned to his fiancée. “You seriously got me _this_ style of ring so I could still wear it as Spider-Man?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Did you not already know that?” Abbie asked.

Peter ignored her for the moment, framed Harley’s face with his hands, said “I love you,” and kissed him.

“Gross!” Abbie threw a balled-up paper towel at their heads, which Peter caught.

“No,” he broke away from Harley. “I did not already know that. This happened last night,” and he threw the paper towel back at her. She missed and it hit her in the face.

Tony groaned and dropped down onto one of the dining chairs, dropping his forehead onto his hands. “Dad? You ok?” Harley asked.

“No. This is awful,” he looked up at them both. “It’s like you don’t even care about my feelings. How am I supposed to threaten either of you to treat my son right when you’re both my sons?” Peter snickered, hiding his face in Harley’s shoulder, who was mostly succeeding at hiding his own laughter. “And now you’re laughing at me!” Pepper rolled her eyes but sympathetically patted Tony’s head.

“Don’t worry Dad, you still have Nebula and Morgan,” Peter said, tilting his head to look over at him.

“You mean I still have Morgan,” he corrected. “Nebula doesn’t need me to threaten anyone for her, she’s more than capable of doing that herself.”

“But, as her dad, you still could. Just for form, ya know?” Harley grinned.

“This is true.” Tony sighed, “Fine, I guess I’ll eventually get over your utter disregard for my feelings. But you should know, it’s probably going to take a long time. At least an hour, maybe even two.”

“I guess that’s reasonable,” Harley shrugged. “Unfortunate though. I was going to tell you all about the Engineering department at MIT and the updates they’ve made since the last time you were there,” he sighed.

Tony was up out of his chair in seconds. He grabbed Harley’s arm and steered him to the living room. “Tell me everything.”

Peter laughed as his fiancée was led away. “Alright, Pete, tell us about the proposal. Who proposed first?” May asked.

“Why that ring for Harley? We already know why he chose yours,” April added.

“Do you two have any ideas on a date yet?” Loki asked.

“Technically, Harley proposed first but I had the ring already and proposed to him before I answered him. So it’s more like we proposed at the same time. It’s a turquoise stone because of the metal that’s woven through the stone and a gold band so it matches. No, we haven’t decided on a date except that we want it to be after we graduate. That’ll give us plenty of time to plan everything exactly how we want it without adding too much wedding planning stress on top of school stress,” he answered them all.

~~~~~~~

June 18th, the date of Steve and Bucky’s wedding, dawned bright and cloudless. They’d slept on different floors of the Tower the night before and were still being kept apart by every member of what they thought of as their family. By leveraging the fact that they were both WWII heroes and had just helped save the entire universe, they managed to get a reservation for the North Garden in Central Park for their ceremony, without needing to wait on a wait list.

Standing in one of the pavilions that had been set up on opposite sides of the garden specifically for him and Bucky and their associated grooms-people to get ready in, Steve fiddled with his bowtie, looking at Tony in the mirror. His groomsman, Sam, and Bucky’s groomswoman, Natasha, were already out and making sure everyone was seated and everything was running on time. Or, more accurately, Sam was making sure everyone was seated and Natasha was ready to threaten people if things weren’t on time.

He and Sam were dressed in matching royal blue tuxedos, the differences being that Steve had a black bowtie and vest and Sam wore silver. Steve knew that Natasha and Bucky were wearing black tuxedos but that Bucky’s bowtie and vest were royal blue and Natasha’s were silver.

“You gonna keep staring and messing up your bowtie, or are you gonna tell me what’s on your mind? Tony asked, tugging at the black sleeve of his tuxedo jacket.

Steve turned around to face him and took a deep breath. They’d mended their relationship and were now better friends than they’d ever been before, but some things still needed to be said out loud. “Listen, I know this started as a joke, but I’m really glad you’re here Tony.”

“Was never a joke. I’m really glad we’re both here too Steve,” Tony smiled and hugged him quickly.

“Okay, guys, two minutes and we’ll be ready for you,” Sam poked his head in.

“Oh God,” Steve dropped to a chair, day-of nerves finally getting the better of him. Tony and Sam shared a look – they’d been expecting this, and Sam had come in to give the two minute warning earlier than two minutes for just this reason.

“Steve, it’s only Bucky,” Sam crouched down in front of him to try to calm him down. He and Tony had agreed that he’d try first and, if it didn’t work, Tony would try. When, after a couple minutes, nothing Sam said was helping, Tony tapped him on the shoulder and he stood out of the way.

Tony stood over Steve and crossed his arms over his chest. They may be better friends now, but one thing that would always remain true is that Tony knew how to get under Steve’s skin. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised,” there was enough of Tony’s old smug attitude in the words to make anyone who didn’t know them think that Tony and Steve still didn’t like each other. “Nazis, alien invasions, end of the world – yeah no problem. Marrying the guy you’ve been in love with since childhood practically? _That’s_ where you chicken out. I should’ve known there was something that would make even you chicken out, Rogers. Come on, Sam, we’ll go find Nat and have her break the news to Bucky that his fiancée’s too chicken to come out of this pavilion to marry him.” The two of them turned to leave and Steve grabbed Tony’s arm and spun him around. “Oh good, you’re back with us. Ready when you are, Sam.”

Sam chuckled and walked out of the tent to meet Natasha. The violinist and cellist seated nearby started to play the processional and Tony smiled up at Steve. “Seriously, Steve, you can do this. As soon as you see Bucky up there, you’ll forget why you were nervous. Happened to me with Pepper.”

“Okay,” he took a deep breath and linked his arm through Tony’s. “Let’s do this.”

They exited the pavilion together, Tony exaggerating his calm breathing in order to get Steve to match it. That idea only helped until Steve actually saw Bucky standing at the altar, beside Natasha. As soon as he caught sight of his almost-husband, the carefully measured steps they’d practiced at the rehearsal flew out the window and Steve started striding down the aisle, practically dragging Tony with him. The assembled Avengers, their families, and the other guests chuckled, Sam and Natasha both covered their faces to hide their laughter, and Tony kept tugging on Steve’s arm as much as he was able to. Steve noticed none of it. The violinist and cellist sped up to match Steve’s stride as much as they were able to, bless them. Tony made a mental note to increase their pay for that.

Quicker than planned, Steve stopped at the altar in front of Bucky and finally seemed to notice that everyone was laughing at his excitement. He blushed a deep crimson, hunching his shoulders a little, but smiled over at Bucky. “Love you too, punk,” Bucky grinned back.

The wedding ceremony itself went smoothly. Tony handed Steve off to Bucky with a smile and a squeeze to each of their arms then took his seat with his family. Some of the family members of the other Howling Commandos had accepted their invitations and were scattered throughout the small crowd. The single reporter that they’d allowed to photograph and cover the event nearly swallowed her tongue when she discovered that it was King T’Challa who would be presiding over the ceremony, but otherwise, she was on her best behavior. Even Morgan and Peter managed to hold mostly still throughout the ceremony though Tony later found out that the two of them had made it a game to see who could hold still the longest. Morgan won.

~~~~~~~

Harley looked nervously up at Peter who was sticking streamers to the ceiling. They were having a party for his 19th birthday and had decided to have one party and invite their friends and family together instead of two parties. “This is a good idea, right? Mixing our friends and our family?”

“It’s a great idea, babe,” Peter let go of the ceiling with his hands, hanging down by his feet, and kissed Harley quickly. “Don’t worry so much. Everyone’s gonna have a great time.”

“Ya know,” Harley and Peter whipped around to see Haru, Tessa, Noor, and Kevin standing in the living room archway. “If you’re going to hang from the ceiling like that when you know you have company coming over, you should probably lock the door.”

“At least if you intend to keep things like that a secret,” Noor added to Haru’s statement.

“I suck at this secret identity thing, Harls.”

“You really do. Isn’t this how Ned found out?”

“Close enough. Hang on, I’ll be down as soon as I attach this.” He pinned the streamer he was holding in place then flipped off the ceiling, landing carefully on the back of one of the couches. “Alright, ask away.”

“How long have you been able to do that?” Noor asked, sitting across from him.

“Since I was 14. I was bitten by a radioactive spider.”

Kevin sat beside Noor and stared silently at Peter for a few seconds. “I told you guys that my family moved around a lot, right?” They all nodded. “We lived in Queens for a little while when I was younger. My mom and I were in a bodega one evening, I can’t remember what we were there to buy. Point is, these two guys in masks with guns tried to rob the place. Then there was a guy in red and blue sweats, that I was later told was Spider-Man, who flung himself into the bodega and stopped them.” Peter blushed, reaching up to rub nervously at the back of his neck.

“You’re Spider-Man?” Tessa asked.

“Mm-hm.”

“So, why’s Harley nervous about us meeting your family?” Haru asked.

“’Cause it’s not just our biological families who’re coming. It’s our adopted family as well. And they’re well…. They’re the Avengers.” Their friends stared at them, silently. “They’re here,” Peter announced, hearing the first couple of cars pull into their driveway. Harley stood up and went to open the door for them. Peter watched his friends’ worried faces and said, “Relax guys, they’re really cool and really down to earth. And they’re really okay with answering questions if you wanna ask. As long as it’s not something that’s classified.”

“Petey!” Morgan ran into the room ahead of everyone else and launched herself at Peter. She couldn’t quite jump high enough to reach him where he was perched on the back of the couch, but Peter reached down to lift her up as she jumped.

“Secret. Identity. Peter. Which part of that is difficult?” Tony asked, striding into the room.

“You tell me, Mr. “I am Iron Man”.”

“He’s got ya there, Tones,” Rhodey followed Tony into the room and winked at Peter. Tony looked at his best friend with a betrayed look that just made Rhodey chuckle.

“Hello friends of Peter and Harley!” Thor led the rest of the group into the living room, Harley at his side.

“Family, this is Haru, Noor, Tessa, and Kevin. Friends, this is our family. Most of them you know from tv, but this is my mom April, my sister Abbie, Peter’s aunt May, May’s husband Happy, and our sisters, Morgan and Nebula.”

Peter looked at the assembled people and noted that, other than the people Harley introduced, it was just the Avengers who lived full time at the Tower – Tony, Pepper, Rhodey, Bruce, Steve, Bucky, Sam, Thor, Loki, and Natasha. MJ and Ned, unfortunately, hadn’t been able to get time away to come with them. Clint, Stephen, and Wanda hadn’t been able to make it at the last minute. There’d been some sort of emergency in Romania that they left to take care of, but Clint had sent the cake he’d baked with Natasha.

The birthday party went smoothly. It took their friends a little while to relax around the various superheroes but once they did things went great. Noor had practically cornered Bruce as soon as she was able and the two of them sat together discussing the most recent stem cell research. Kevin was in the game room playing pool with Rhodey against Thor and Natasha. Pool was one of Thor’s favorite games and, luckily for whoever he was playing against, was a game in which his strength was useless. Haru, Abbie, Sam, and Tony were also in the game room, playing on the Wii. Though Tony was probably going to quit sooner rather than later because he was losing horribly to the three of them.

Tessa had gotten yet another call from her mother, trying to dissuade her daughter from trying to continue her education. Peter had overheard the conversation and asked Pepper to go see if his friend needed help. When the two of them came back inside from the backyard, Tessa was practically glued to Pepper’s side and Pepper was radiating the kind of smug satisfaction that usually belonged to Tony. Clearly, the conversation had not gone well for Tessa’s mom.

After a few hours, they had dinner followed by birthday cake. Haru, Noor, Tessa, and Kevin left earlier than their family did. Finally, Tony announced, mostly to Morgan, that it was time for them to go too.

“But can I stay the night tonight, Daddy? Please?” Tony looked over his daughter’s head at Peter and Harley who nodded back at him.

“If you stay, Maguna, who’s gonna stay to bring you home tomorrow?”

“I will,” Abbie and Nebula said together.

“Nice. Sibling sleepover,” Peter grinned. Tony tossed his keys to Nebula as he and the others were headed out the door.

After their parents and other adult/authority figures left, Peter and Nebula went upstairs to his and Harley’s room and carried the king size mattress down into the living room while Abbie, Harley, and Morgan made room for it. Peter and Nebula set it on the floor so that one end was up against the couch, then Abbie and Morgan ran upstairs to collect all the blankets and pillows from all the bedrooms. Nebula, following Harley and Peter’s lead, helped carry in the dining room chairs.

“What are we doing?” She asked.

“Building a pillow fort in the living room,” Harley answered. Nebula looked confused, so he explained. “A pillow fort is kind of like setting up a tent in the middle of an indoor space that is made up of pillows, blankets, sheets, and other household furniture.”

“And it’s purpose?”

“Fun, mostly,” Peter shrugged a shoulder. “Also for comfort for a group of people. Or sometimes just one or two people. We have that rope in the garage, right?” He asked Harley.

“Yeah, why?” Peter took off without answering. He was back in minutes with a coil of rope. “What are you doing?”

“If I put one end of this rope under the back middle leg of the couch, bring it over the back and attach it to the curtain rod behind the tv, we can use binder clips to attach sheets to it and make the roof of the fort high enough that those of us over four feet tall won’t have to crawl.”

“You’re a genius. Abbie! Stop in the study and grab the box of large binder clips!”

“Why?!” She shouted back from not very far away.

“’Cause I asked you to. Come on, Neb, let’s start gathering snacks.” While they were gone, Peter tied the rope to the back leg of the couch then walked on the ceiling to the wall behind the tv and tied the other end to the curtain rod.

“Oh, that’s brilliant,” Abbie commented, seeing what Peter was doing.

“Thanks,” he grinned at her. She spread one of the flat sheets she was carrying over the couch, using a clip to attach the top edge to the rope. After a little while, they had attached sheets to the rope and draped them over the dining room chairs, attaching them to the seat of the chairs with more clips. Morgan, Harley, and Nebula, meanwhile, piled all the pillows on the mattress and stacked the blankets off to one side for when everyone decided they wanted them.

When their fort was done, Harley took a couple pictures and posted them in the family group chat. Then they all crawled into the fort to make themselves comfortable.

“This is awesome,” Morgan grinned, halfway through the first movie. “Can we sleep in here tonight?”

“Yeah, sure,” Harley shrugged a shoulder, reaching over to ruffle her hair. She batted his hands away, giggling when he tickled her.

Peter, on the other side of Morgan, noticed the pensive, almost sad look on Nebula’s face and wasn’t that surprised when she got up and left their fort a little while later.

“Neb?” Morgan called after her, confused.

“Don’t worry, Morg, I’ll go check on her. We’ll be back.”

“Ok, Petey. But hurry, it’s almost the end of the movie.” He kissed her forehead then followed Nebula out of the fort.

“What’s up Nebula?” Peter found her in the hallway. She continued up to one of the spare rooms but held out her hand to him so he would keep following.

“I’m not certain what exactly is wrong,” she said, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Last time I felt like something was off it helped to talk to Harley so perhaps talking again will help this time.”

“You have my undivided attention,” Peter sat sideways on the edge of the bed, close enough so she could reach out to him but far enough so that he wasn’t crowding her.

“I don’t know where this feeling is coming from, but it feels as though I don’t… fit with the rest of you.” She twisted her fingers together in her lap, something Peter noticed she hadn’t done before but looked a lot like what Abbie and Harley did when they were nervous about something.

“Can you elaborate for me? Is it something any of the four of us are accidentally doing? Or is it something from your past do you think?”

“No, it’s not something you four are doing. It’s…. Gamora and the others came to the Tower last weekend. They invited me to come with them. To leave Earth and travel the vastness of space again. I told Gamora that I had to stay here. That I have family here who depends on me. She’s not the same as she was when she and I were finally starting to get to know each other and get along, I told you that, right?” He nodded. “Right. Well, she said that she was my only family left. That even though you all brought me into your family, she and I were the ones who had shared childhood experiences so that made her and I family. She said that all of you had taken me in as if I were a stray animal that you had grown to care for but would otherwise not have tolerated in the house.” Nebula’s breathing hitched, something Peter had never heard, and he realized that she might start crying. “She said the only reason any of you cared about me is that I kept Tony alive on the way back from Titan.”

Peter reached out to her, cautiously at first, in case she didn’t want to be touched. When she leaned a little closer to him, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer to him. As he hugged her close, her breaths came out as gasps, and he felt her tears on his neck. For a few minutes he held her close, gently stroking her back and rocking them from side to side.

“I am sorry. Tears are a weakness meant only for small children,” Nebula pulled away from him and swiped at her eyes.

“First of all, tears are not a weakness. Crying in any highly emotional moment is totally normal. And I mean that twice as much if it was Thanos who told you that in the first place.” Nebula only nodded, then went back to twisting her fingers in her lap. “As for the rest, while it is true that we don’t share your and Gamora’s childhood experiences, that doesn’t make us any less your siblings. We are your family because we chose you and you chose us. None of us simply tolerate you, Neb. We like having you in our lives. I mean yeah, you did come into this family by saving Dad, but that isn’t why you’re still here. You’re still here because we all want you to be here.” He paused for a moment, trying to figure out how to say what he wanted to say.

“Look at Harley and Abbie and Morgan. Harley and Abbie grew up together, right? They have a shared childhood. But Harley and Morgan didn’t. In fact, Harley missed the first five years of Morgan’s life. But that doesn’t make Harley more Abbie’s brother than Morgan’s, does it? And the only reason he treats them a little differently is because of their ages. Abbie, generally speaking, is too old to enjoy or let herself enjoy some of the things Morgan does. And Morgan is still young enough to need the frequent affection and reassurance that… Harley… loves… her,” Peter’s words slowed down as he came to a realization. “Is that part of the problem Nebula? Or would it help you? If we were more affectionate with you more frequently, like we do for Morgan?” When she didn’t respond, except to hunch her shoulders in a little, Peter felt like resurrecting Thanos just long enough to punch him in the face as hard as he could.

“Neb, look at me, please.” He waited until she did, then reached forward to put a hand on each of her shoulders. “It is not a weakness to need affection from your family. It is not a bad thing to want to be hugged or to be told that we love you. But we don’t want to push you beyond where you’re comfortable, so we need you to tell us if that’s what you want, okay? We also need you to tell us if it gets to be too much and you need us to back off some, okay?”

“I don’t know if I can handle the constant displays of affection like Morgan likes.”

“That’s okay. None of us will try to make you and all of us will understand if you need us to back off a little.” She nodded. “I’m going to text Dad, Harley, and Abbie, okay? I’ll tell them that you need some more affection, but I won’t tell them anything else if you don’t want me to.”

“You can tell Harley everything,” she said after a quiet moment. He nodded, made a mental note to tell Harley after their sisters had left the next day, and sent a group message to Tony, Harley, and Abbie.

Together the two of them went back downstairs. Peter split off to go to the study while Nebula went back into the living room.

“Neb! It basically the end of the movie! Is Petey with you?”

“He had to grab something from the study. You can tell me all about what I missed on the car ride home tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay.”

When he came back into the room, Peter stood at the entrance of the fort and waited until the credits started to roll. “Wanna play Go Fish?” He held out two decks of cards.

“Yeah!” Morgan shouted.

Nebula smiled at him. “Will you grab my bag?” He passed it to her while Harley hurried out of the fort. Nebula pulled the deck of cards that they had given her for Christmas out of the bag then tossed it out of the fort. Peter grinned and set one of the decks he had beside the tv. Harley hurried back in with a bungee cord and a flashlight, holding them out to Peter. Switching with Harley, Peter climbed to the ceiling and attached the flashlight to the rope so it hung down in the middle of the fort and allowed them all to see better for the game.

They played a few games of Go Fish, before starting another movie. Peter made sure, through all the games, to sit with his knee pressed against Nebula’s so she knew she could reach out to him any time she wanted. When they settled back in for the movie, they settled on their backs, slightly propped up so they could see instead of on their stomachs like they had the first time. Nebula ended up, by design, in the middle of them. Morgan was curled up, practically on top of her on her left side, Abbie was behind Morgan but made sure she was still touching Nebula. Peter and Harley were on her right side, Peter with his head on her shoulder, Harley behind him with his arm draped over Peter and his hand on Nebula belly. When she realized what they were doing, she stretched out her own arms to wrap around behind Harley and Abbie with a whispered, “Thank you.”

Nebula didn’t sleep but, as her siblings drifted off to sleep cuddled around her, she felt more relaxed and comforted than she had since before she could remember and she let her mind drift in semi-consciousness.

A few months later, Peter and Harley went home for Christmas. There was another party to welcome them home, as usual at Morgan’s insistence. The now-seven-year-old still enjoyed any reason to have a party, particularly if it centered around her siblings. For this party, the Guardians had decided to come as well. After what she had revealed to Peter and he had subsequently told Harley, the two of them stayed close to Nebula whenever she was talking to Gamora. They used any excuse they wanted to come up behind her for a quick hug, or to lean against her and join in or just listen to the sisters’ conversation.

Though they didn’t know what Nebula had told Peter, Tony, Pepper, and Rhodey weren’t dumb. Seeing the way the boys acted in front of Gamora, as if they were staking a claim on Nebula, they mostly figured she had had something to do with the way Nebula had been feeling. They followed the boys’ example, showing her even more outward affection in front of her sister, without making her feel awkward. Morgan, of course, never needed any kind of reason to show affection and it wasn’t unusual to find her hanging tightly to whichever of her family members she happened to be near. Nebula, catching on pretty quickly to what her family was doing, just smiled slightly every time someone came up to her, and tried to include them in her conversation.

~~~~~~~

Though they planned every summer between school, and sometimes still at school, the planning for Peter and Harley’s wedding began in earnest around Christmas of their final year at MIT. They’d decided they wanted to get married in the fall after graduation so, rather than leave the planning for the complete last minute of that summer, they started ironing out all the details during the school year.

The biggest obstacle they found that they had was which of them got Morgan and which got Nebula to be in his side of the wedding party. Finally, since they couldn’t come to an agreement, they sat down with the two of them over Spring Break and discussed their problem. They also discussed the solution they’d come up with. Peter and Harley each picked a number between 1 and 200 and which ever of their sisters got closest to his number would decide who was on which side.

For Peter, Ned was his best man, and MJ, Nebula, and Tessa were his groomspeople. For Harley, Abbie was his best woman, and Loki, Morgan, and Haru were his groomspeople. Because of the gender mix, and because Harley had decided he wanted to wear a wedding dress, they picked out a tux and a matching bridesmaid dress for all eight people in their wedding party, to allow them to choose which one they wanted. The tuxes were black with burgundy vest and bowtie. The dresses were burgundy, ankle-length, chiffon, with flutter sleeves. Peter and Harley, in contrast to their wedding party, were both wearing white with burgundy accents.

Peter’s tux pants and jacket were white with burgundy embroidery on the lapels and cuffs of both the jacket and pants that matched the embroidery on the bottom of Harley’s skirt. His vest and bow tie were also burgundy while his shirt was white silk. Harley’s dress had a boatneck neckline, bishop sleeves, and an A-line skirt. The sleeves were sheer white and the bodice was solid white. The rose embroidery started at the waist line and started off white, gradually darkening to a dark burgundy at the bottom few inches of the skirt. And, like the bridesmaid dresses, the skirt flared out when Harley spun in it. While they were shopping for dresses, Morgan had found the section of the store that had tiaras. With very little convincing, she’d managed to get Harley to try on a few of those as well. He chose a very simple design with crystal and garnets.

The day of the wedding dawned a little overcast and with just enough chill in the air to remind everyone that it was September. But inside Avengers’ Tower, you’d never be able to tell. Peter had woken up early, full of nervous energy and was busy burning some of it off by sparing with Steve, Bucky, and Natasha. Ned, MJ, and Tessa, who had spent the night at the Tower with him, had drifted into the gym once they’d each woken up. MJ and Tessa, because clearly they were good friends, were loudly cheering on whichever Avenger was currently sparing with Peter. The girls were so loud, they were drowning out Ned who was cheering on his best friend. Nebula, once she made her way to the gym, had offered to spar with her brother as well. This caused loud cheers from MJ and Tessa, drowning out any protest Peter might have made. He hadn’t protested, but he was pretty sure it wouldn’t have mattered if he had.

Up at the Stark cabin, where the wedding would be held, Harley had slept in more than Peter but had also woken up full of nervous energy. Morgan, ever the helpful 9-year-old, had suggested they play hide and seek with Harley as the seeker. Her main rule was that Loki wasn’t allowed to use magic to try to hide themself better. While Harley counted, Loki, Morgan, Abbie, Haru, and Thor hid themselves around the cabin and the workshop/garage outside. The other adults that had stayed in the cabin had declared they were too old for the game but were helping those who were playing to hide themselves better.

Each of the grooms had a wedding photographer assigned to stay with them all day. Peter and Harley had decided that they wanted more than just the ceremony documented. They wanted the whole day leading up to it to be documented as well. So, within reason, each photographer stuck to one of them throughout the day.

Tony, April, and May stayed in constant contact with each other through the day. April had gone to the cabin with Harley, while May stayed behind in New York with Peter. Tony had also stayed at the Tower, but he would be leaving earlier than the others to get to the cabin. He was the one who came down to the gym and called them all upstairs for breakfast, reminding them that they had a limited amount of time before they had to be ready to fly upstate.

At the cabin, the decorators were quickly and efficiently setting everything up in the yard under the watchful eyes of Pepper, Natasha (who had left the Tower early for just this reason), and April. Clint had taken over the cabin’s kitchen to finalize the cake. Thor was at the base of the dock, having volunteered to hold the wedding arch up while it was secured in place. Loki had rounded up Morgan, Abbie, Haru, and Harley and taken them upstairs so the five of them could get ready. Only Haru had opted for the tux so he had a much easier time of getting ready, which allowed him to help the others if they needed it.

At the Tower, after Tony left, Peter and his wedding party went upstairs to get ready. Nebula and Tessa had decided on the bridesmaid dresses while MJ and Ned were wearing tuxes. Finally, it was time for them to leave. Most everyone who had been at the Tower had already left for upstate New York and the cabin, but Steve, Bucky, and Sam had stayed behind and Sam piloted the jet that would take Peter, May, Ned, MJ, Nebula, and Tessa to the cabin. Peter very carefully didn’t touch anything in the jet, he didn’t want to get his white tux dirty before the ceremony even started. The jet landed and Bucky, Steve, and Sam hurried out to take their seats. Ned, MJ, Nebula, and Tessa got out after them to find their respective partners on Harley’s side of the wedding party.

Peter and May stayed in the jet, waiting until it was time for Tony. When he finally came to get them, he brought Loki with him.

“The dress looks good on you, Loki.”

“Thank you, Peter,” they smiled at him. “Spin slowly please.” Peter did as asked. “Good, still clean. Harley asked me to come check and see if you had gotten the tux dirty and needed any spots magically removed,” they explained, wiggling their fingers a little.

“Thanks, Loki.” They smiled at him and left the jet.

“How’re you feeling, kid?”

“Honestly, I think I’m doing okay. Like, I’m excited for this, but I kinda want to get it over with so we can be married, ya know? I’m excited to get married, but I’m more excited to _be_ married. Does that make sense?”

Aunt May teared up a little and kissed his temple. “Yeah, sweetheart, that makes perfect sense.”

Tony reached forward and pulled him into a hug. Peter held tightly to the back of his suit jacket. “I’m really glad you’re here for this, Dad.”

“Me too, Pete, me too.” They broke apart after a couple minutes, both of them accepting the tissues May handed them. “Alright, let’s do this.” The three of them left the jet and May and Tony walked Peter down the aisle to his spot in front of the wedding arch then sat down in the front row.

Peter turned his attention to the end of the aisle where the wedding party was gathering. As the processional music began, Tessa and Haru linked arms and walked at a measured pace up the aisle. They were followed by Nebula and Morgan, then MJ and Loki, and Ned and Abbie. Once Ned and Abbie took their places, Tony pushed a button on the small remote in his pocket that remotely opened the front door of the cabin. Together, April and Harley stepped out of the cabin.

Peter’s breath caught a little and he reached for Ned’s hand to steady himself. Harley was beautiful, standing proudly beside his mother in his wedding dress, the tiara that Morgan had helped him pick out perched on his head and catching the sunlight just a little. In that moment, Peter fully understood why Steve had practically run down the aisle at Bucky and was very glad that all he had to do was stand still. He wasn’t sure his suddenly shaky legs would support him walking down the aisle toward Harley. Eyes locked on Harley, he didn’t notice that anyone else had turned to look at him or that he was tearing up a little watching Harley. Ned squeezed his hand and moved a little closer, providing the support Peter needed right then.

Unlike Steve had, Harley took his time walking down the aisle, doing it just as they had practiced. And, Peter realized with a grin, he was taking the time to preen a little for the cameras of the two wedding photographers. His almost-husband looked good, and he knew it too. Then, Harley finally locked eyes with Peter and his grin lit up his face. Peter saw him hold tighter to his mom as if he needed the support as much as Peter needed Ned’s support.

As April and Harley reached the arch, April held out Harley’s hand for Peter to take. When the two men stood in front of each other, April took her seat beside Tony. They’d forgone a traditional bouquet. Tony had instead spent a couple of nights perfecting a bouquet of metal roses, so it rattled a little when Harley passed it back to Abbie so he could hold both of Peter’s hands.

The officiant smiled and cleared his throat to begin. “Welcome friends and family, we are gathered here today to celebrate the love between Peter and Harley. If anyone should know of a reason these two should not be wed, speak now or forever hold your peace.” Though Peter and Harley didn’t see it, Loki and Nebula glared around at everyone, as if daring someone to say something when the officiant paused. The officiant did see it and grinned as he continued the ceremony. “As I promised the grooms, we’ll keep this short today.” There was scattered laughter as he gestured to Ned and Abbie who passed forward the wedding rings.

“Peter, do you?”

“I do.” He slid the ring on Harley’s finger.

“Harley, do you?”

“I do.” He slid the matching wedding band on Peter’s finger.

“Congratulations. By the power invested in me by the state of New York, I pronounce you husbands. You may kiss your groom,” the officiant announced. Peter grinned, leaning up to kiss Harley to the sounds of their family and friends laughing and cheering around them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Peter and Harley's wedding at the end is pulled from Robin Hood: Men in Tights, which aside from being hilarious, is my favorite Robin Hood movie. I strongly recommend it if you get the chance. Also, for me, the wedding ceremony itself isn't what was important. It was the lead up and the bit Peter said about not being nervous about getting married, just wanting to be married.  
> Finally, I wanted to note the reason why Morgan always runs to hug Peter first when she has the choice. It's because she KNOWS he can catch her when she runs and jumps because he's Spider-Man.

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, this is the most fix-it fic I’ve ever written where I didn’t just blatantly ignore which ever part of canon upset me and am instead figuring out a way to actually correct the problem. Also, I know Morgan doesn’t sound like an almost 5-year-old. You know what they sound like, I assume. It’s hard to write child-speak. Finally, if you cried at Morgan’s little speech, it’s okay. I cried writing it.
> 
> Updates every Monday.


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